We’ve been watching our adult children measure their progress by culture’s clocks: travel in your teens, graduate and get a good job in your twenties; find a mate by your thirties, achieve career success by your forties.  (One of our children seems committed to skateboarding every continent of the world before he’s twenty-nine.)

We live our lives and measure our progress by these human clocks.  But, just as well, these human clocks can worry us, judge us, condemn us.  “I should have figured out my calling by this age.”  “I should be married by now.”  “I can’t be getting sick at this moment in my career.”

Yet, there is another clock in life that is always on our side: God’s clock.  God’s clock is not set to minutes, months, retirement age.  God’s clock is set for the sake of our spiritual progress, our growth and our salvation.

In this Sunday’s lessons we are counseled about how to endure through times of uncertainty and clocks that are punishing.   We’ll learn how God works in “his time” — creatively, surprisingly, and always for our good.