When the Pendulum Stops Swinging

While vacationing years ago in Sutton’s Bay, Michigan, I was introduced to Allen Design clocks in a cute little store, where I purchased a sewing machine clock for my Mom’s craft room.  Fast forward a few years, and I spotted more of their fun wall clocks in an airport store, (where everyone knows the price is always doubled or tripled, right?)  I had been preparing to move into my current little condo, and knew the teal blue coffee pot clock would look just right hanging on the wall near my kitchen table, so when I returned home, I purchased it on line – and yes, it was much cheaper 😉  (Link below to Allen Designs)

A coffee cup pendulum swung back and forth below my clock for the past three years, but recently it quit swinging.  I thought that the battery had died, so I replaced it, but only a day later, it quit running again.  I replaced the battery again, but another day later, it quit again.  So I replaced it a third and a fourth TIME.  And it quit the third and fourth TIME, too.    

It’s official – my cute little clock has died, and its coffee cup pendulum no longer swings back and forth, but hangs perfectly still beneath it  Most people would take it down and replace it because what good is a clock that doesn’t tell TIME?  But I’m not most people (just ask my family).  

The truth is – I never looked up at that clock to see what TIME it was anyways; I always glance at my phone for that.  It’s a unique piece of art that still, even with it’s no-longer-swinging-coffee-cup-pendulum, is as adorable as the day I spotted it in that airport shop.  And it looks just perfect on my wall, right where it is.  So I’m keeping it – broken or not.  

Last night after work I was sitting on the couch and glanced up at my coffee cup clock and its pendulum, just hanging there perfectly still.  The time?  8:55.   This morning I’m looking at it again.  It’s still 8:55.  But this time when I looked at it, I thought about a gentleman I met yesterday who told me, “Don’t get old.  It’s not worth it.”  I didn’t respond, but immediately I thought that he was essentially telling me I’d be better off dead than getting old.  Like my clock, I’d be better off if my pendulum quit swinging, and if my TIME here just came to an abrupt STOP.  What a miserable state of mind to live in.

It’s true – at some point, everyone’s pendulum stops working, and it doesn’t matter how many times the batteries get changed.  At some TIME, all of our pendulums are going to stop.  It’s also true that none of us know when that’s going to happen. 

As an oncology RN, caring for patients who are often struggling through the biggest fight of their life, I’m reminded that not everyone gets the same gift of TIME as everyone else – to get old, watch their hair turn white, see their children graduate high school, or get married, or ever meet or snuggle their grandchildren.  Having been with many patients during their last months, weeks, days, and even moments, I can say with all confidence that none of us know when the pendulum will stop.  

I’m also reminded of the day I was with my Dad when the oncologist from the VA in Detroit told him that his cancer was going to take his life.  My Dad looked at him and asked, “What should I do?”  I can still see it clearly.  That physician rolled in his chair up to face my Dad, put his hands on his knees, looked him straight in the face and said, “Mr. MacDonald, this is what you do – every single day for the rest of your life, when you wake up in the morning, you THANK GOD for another day.”  And I believe my Dad took those words to heart and he did that very thing right up until the day he passed.  

We get inundated with sales pitches on anti-aging creams, therapies, Botox injections, and all sorts of other ways to defy the odds and look as if we’ve never aged past our 20’s.  We’re so busy trying to look as if we’ve cornered the market on staying our young selves, that we don’t ever stop to think about how we steward our TIME in the last years of our lives, (as if we even know when those “last years” are). I think our TIME would be more wisely spent listening to the words of my Dad’s physician.

As I often do, I remind myself of my friend Jerry Carnill’s last days, when he wanted to pour as much wisdom as he could into a young group of people.  I’m reminded of the day I visited him in the hospital and he had chocolate cake, hot chocolate, and chocolate pudding on his tray, and when I reminded him that he was diabetic, he responded with, “Who cares?  I’m going HOME!”  Jerry was in hospice during those last days, and I watched him withdraw in a sweet way where he would often sit and just stare out the window with a smile on his face.  When I asked him once what he was thinking about, he turned his head towards me and said, “I just keep thinking – I’m getting ready to go to heaven.  And I get to learn all about God for the rest of eternity, and I can’t WAIT!”  No fear.  No regrets.  Jerry, like so many other believers whose deaths I’ve been privileged to witness, had not focused on anti-aging efforts, or even the balance in his checking account.  He spent his TIME making relationships right, and he made sure everyone he loved knew it, and I never once heard him complain. 

Tomorrow isn’t promised, and being given the opportunity to get old is a gift…   the gift of TIME.  I’m still learning how to steward my TIME well these days.  My hair is white, I’ve got quite a few wrinkles, and my knees make all sorts of music when I go up and down the stairs.  But I’m still here, have grandkids who need to know more about Jesus, the wisdom that only age and TIME gives, my pendulum is still swinging, and for the TIME being, Sir, I am certainly NOT better off dead.  

Pondering how we spend our TIME is good.  Pondering our life coming to an end, and our pendulum no longer swinging is WISE because ALL of our pendulums will one day…   STOP.  And if I ever start sounding as if I believe I’d be better off dead, would someone please remind me, as my Dad’s doctor did – that every day I wake up, I should thank GOD for another day, and a little more TIME!

Oh, goodness!  Look at the TIME!  It’s already 8:55.  Gotta run!

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”  Psalm 90:12 ESV

Kettle Blue Clock