What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?

Did you ever play this game when you were a child? One lucky "fox" would stand at one end of the room, and all the other players would stand at the other end and shout, "What time is it, Mr. Fox?" Mr. Fox would tell the time (3 o'clock, 7 o'clock, 11, o'clock), and players would take that many steps (as big and wide of steps as they could!) in order to try to tag Mr. Fox at the other end of the room. Sometimes Mr. Fox would yell "Midnight!" and players would have to run back to the starting line before they got snatched up by Mr. Fox. It's a fun game! You should try it at home sometime.

Mr. Fox has me thinking about the book of Ecclesiates, and thinking about what time it is. In Eccesiastes 3, the author writes some beautiful poetry about time.

3For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace.

It can become easy to think that time should only be devoted to things that make us feel good...like loving, and laughing, and planting. But Ecclesiastes reminds us that in life we experience times of death and loss and weeping too. These are necessary times, and they can, in fact, be helpful times.

What time is it in your life right now? Have you made time for both the good and the bad?

Potential

“You’ve got so much potential!”

“Why, thank you!”

Have you ever told someone that they have potential? You probably said it as a compliment, remarking that their future looks bright. That you see something wonderful in them that will continue to be developed and shared with others. Has anyone ever told you that you have potential? It probably made you feel good, proud about who you are. Or… maybe it caused you to think twice.

We all want potential… don’t we?

Is potential always a good thing?

The first meaning of potential certainly is positive. Potential conveys hope for tomorrow. It carries a sense of the future, a good future. We do want potential because we want our tomorrows to hold great promise and success. We want to see potential in our children and youth; it gives us confidence for the coming years.

But maybe you’ve told someone that they have potential because, today, they don’t have much talent for one thing or another. Potential here means that perhaps they might be better in the future than they are now.

Synonyms for potential include latent…dormant…currently unexpressed ability…un-actualized possibility…not currently present but possibly apparent later.

“Potential” can leave us wondering about the present.

This doesn’t mean we should stop using or receiving the word “potential” as a compliment. God sees potential in us. God believes that tomorrow and the next day we might love God and love others more than we did today. That in the future we might live our lives in ways that embody more of God’s ideal world.

God sees this potential, but God also loves who we are today. God is not waiting for us to realize our potential before God can use us to do God’s work in the world. God sees in us both gifts for today and potential for the future.

This is the kind of perspective shift we need, particularly in our attitude toward children and youth. These young members of our communities and our churches are not only the future, they are our today, too. Let not our penchants for perceiving potential prevent us from appreciating the beauty and contribution that our youth – and any of us – can offer today.

No matter our age, we all have not only potential for the future, but also a contribution for the present.