Did you receive a watch for Christmas? Chances are high that many people did. Watches and clocks are still popular choices. They have been for ages because time has got to keep moving and we've got to keep up.........or have we?

Daniel Boorstin, the historian, says that one of the most significant inventions ever is the mechanical clock. He notes that it was designed to meet the needs of monks, obliged to pray at set times of the day. It summoned them to prayer, that rich opportunity for communion with God.

Contrast that original purpose with today! Mechanical clocks no longer summon us to the stillness of prayer. They demand the opposite. They tempt us to fill every hour, every minute, every second of our lives with a thousand bits of busyness that leave us no time for God or ourselves. Digital clocks are no better; they only tell us what time it is now. They don't tell us about the past or the future, like a watch that has a face on it. They encourage us only to thrive on the heat of the moment. Atomic clocks, measuring time in millionths of a second, are even worse. No wonder stress and burnout are such big killers. We can feel ourselves compelled through time with no chance to repair or redeem.

I've often wondered if this would change if our watches and clocks had no second or minute hands on. Would we live more leisurely? Be more sensitive to the arc of the sun? The passage of the planet? Would some of the pressures of our lives disappear? Would we have a better day if we only had the hours and not the minutes and the seconds? It's interesting to note that before 1500 there were no minutes or seconds on clocks. They only sounded the hours and history doesn't record high levels of resulting stress.

So, should we throw out our digital and mechanical watches? Or should we decide to use them for their more ancient purpose? They were once the servants to our souls. Could they be so again? The new year presents us with an opportunity to try and let them. If we can slow down to celebrate God in the hours then the minutes will surely take care of themselves. DG.