LITMIR.BIZ

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Mac paged through the book quickly, searching. “I have it now. Listen: ‘Time has no divisions to mark its passage; there is never a thunderstorm or blare o’ trumpets to announce the beginning o’ a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.’”

      “That’s an interesting quote. It makes me think.”

      “What does it make ye think?”

      “That we humans suppose we can slow time by dividing it. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll read that book.”

      “Ye might enjoy it. But, back to your question. Ye can be sure that the new millennium is part o’ God’s plan, and He has miracles in store, as He does today. Ye must remember, too, a thousand years is but a wink o’ the eye to God. Now, I’m goin’ to take a wee kip before supper.”

      “Oh sure, Uncle. Have a nice nap. I’ll go back to my book, and keep things quiet.”

      A week later, Richard announced, “I have an e-mail for you, Uncle, from someone by the name of MacPherson, James MacPherson. That’s certainly a Scottish name.”

      “Ye have that right, laddie. He lives in Dumbarton, Scotland, on the banks of the River Clyde. I’ve known Jamey since he was a wee bairn. He’s a pure soul, he is. I saw him a few years ago durin’ my last visit to Scotland. But he likes to take the mickey.”

      “You mean he drinks a lot?”

      “No!” Mac chuckled at how his nephew had misinterpreted the Glasgow expression. “I mean he likes to tease and make fun o’ his friends to make them laugh.”

      “Sounds like someone I know. Here, I printed his message..” Richard handed the page to his uncle.

      Mac quickly read. “Soonds like Jamey awright. He asks, since I’ve stopped policin’ book-borrowers, what have I been doin’ with my life? He suggests that I should come to Dumbarton to help him with his shippin’ business. He operates out o’ the Port o’ Glasgow. He says he has plenty o’ men with strong backs and strong minds, but he needs a man with a strong conscience to be sure that profits don’t exceed ethics. They’re shippin’ Scottish gudes all over the world in days, when it used to take weeks.”

      Richard smiled and shook his head. “Goods, people and information are moving faster and faster, but never fast enough to satisfy us. We expect to travel hundreds of miles in minutes.”

      “Aye. We want everythin’, includin’ ourselves, to arrive yesterday. We’ve lost the ability to appreciate the wait between wantin’ somethin’ and gettin’ it. Why, when Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, Americans couldn’t move gudes and information much faster than the ancient Romans. And probably most people expected it to remain that way. In Jefferson’s day, it took aboot six weeks for information to go from the Mississippi River to Washington, D.C. When Abraham Lincoln took office aboot sixty years later, a telegraph could convey information nearly instantaneously. Now look, e-mail from Scotland, like that!” Mac snapped his fingers. “The more we compress time, the more we shrink space. Whatever happens, happens faster and closer.”

      “Is that bad, Uncle?”

      “Aye, in some ways. It’s like a ride in a lift . . . an elevator. Ye go up so fast, ye feel ye’ve left your stomach behind. We may move so fast that we leave behind somethin’ we need and value, and then we won’t have much reason to get to where we’re goin’.”

      “Do you think it’s inevitable, that we won’t be able to help ourselves?”

      “No, my boy. Earthly time alone needn’t mark the movements in your life. Ye should also give thought to where ye are in God’s time. No matter how fast life may seem to move ye along laddie, God remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

      Both men sat silent for a few minutes. Each man used the silence to reflect on those ancient words.

      “I guess I don’t understand what you mean by ‘God’s time,’ Uncle. In a way I do, but . . .”

      “Richard, I believe the Bible teaches that God expects His children, day by day, to grow in spirit, as they develop physically. But, if Christians focus only on material things—how many pounds, dollars, or honors they’ve gained or lost—their spirits won’t develop, and God’s timetable for them will be disrupted. Then, God may put somethin’ in their way to slow them doon, so they can see what’s important in life.”

      “Oh yes, I see.” Richard nodded to encourage him to continue.

      “The Scriptures are plain: ‘When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.’ When we’re in God’s time, laddie, we see and hear what He tells us, and, in His time, we come to understand who we are, spiritually, and how we’re to use our gifts in His divine plan. ‘For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.’ Sometimes, God uses our experience to shine a light in the mirror. Then we see more clearly what He would have us know.”

      Often in the days to come, Richard would contemplate the verses from I Corinthians that his uncle had quoted.

      5

      Facing New Challenges

      Richard was not a morning person. Except when college classes had required it, he seldom rose before nine. But this morning, crows in the backyard sounded their alarm at the break of day.

      Unable to get back to sleep, Richard stared at a brown water stain on the ceiling, picking out the shape of a seagull in flight, as he’d done numerous times since childhood.

      Climbing out of bed, he muttered, “Rotten crows!”

      He showered, dressed, and went quietly downstairs. Not wishing to wake his uncle, he fixed himself a simple breakfast of coffee, toast, and orange juice.

      Guess I’ll take a walk. Burn all those calories from that huge breakfast.

      Richard slipped on a light jacket against the cool morning air. He closed the front door softly and headed toward town.

      Deep in thought, he hadn’t realized that he had walked all the way downtown until he suddenly noticed the sidewalks filling with people who, unlike himself, had particular destinations in mind. They rushed to stores just opening or to reach jobsites on time.

      “Excuse me!” said a woman after she bumped into Richard in an effort to get around him. The young man’s slow pace made him an obstruction.

      Since I’m just a block from church, I’ll say hello to Cal Jessup and get out of everyone else’s way. He picked up his pace.

      When Richard appeared at the open door to Cal’s office, the youth pastor said. “Do you know I was thinking about you this very minute?”

      “Oh? I hope it was something good.”

      “It was! See!” Cal pointed. “My desk calendar says, ‘Call Richard Hawkins’ and here you are!”

      “Rich, in all the years I’ve known you, you’ve taken every opportunity to serve our church. I wouldn’t say this to all our members, but you don’t just talk the talk, you walk the walk.”

      Richard wondered where this was leading.

      “I’m leaving for Columbus, Ohio soon. I’ll be speaking at a church there. Responsibility for our youth group needs to be entrusted to someone who’s reliable. Someone who’ll lift up Scriptural truth. But I need a person who can relate to youth! I need someone the kids will look up to.”

      “Yea, that’s the kind of person you need alright. What about Charlie Evans?”

      “If I wanted someone who could take the youth group ice skating, Charlie would be fine. But fun isn’t my objective.”

      “I can’t think of anybody else right now.”

      “How

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