Tick...Tock... by Beth

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

How do you measure, measure a year? 

These are lines from a famous song from RENT, a musical I love. Such an admission will probably alienate half of the folks that read this blog, but it’s true nonetheless.  Though the story is admittedly a bit dark, I think it is a beautiful portrayal of community, love and acceptance.

The song goes on to list the many ways we might measure our time…

In daylights – in sunsets

In midnights – in cups of coffee

In inches – in miles

In laughter – in strife

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?

in truth that she learned

or in times that he cried

in bridges he burned

or the way that she died

At the end of our lives, how will we decide or will others decide, how well we did on our journey? After the questions and wondering, the songwriter concludes that maybe there is a better measure of our lives. 

How about love?

Of course as a Christian, I am sold out to the idea that this is definitively the way we should evaluate our lives. Remember that when Jesus was questioned about what the greatest thing is, he said, “Love God and love others”.

In RENT. a small group of artists clung to each other like their life depended on it…because it did. They offered each other grace, and unconditional acceptance. They loved without judgment because they recognized what many of us in the church have yet to realize – we need each other desperately.

July is almost gone and I am guessing many of us have already abandoned our New Year’s resolutions. So why not make a new one? Why not resolve to love more and better in this 2nd half of 2012?

Why not set a real goal, an eternal goal to measure our time in LOVE. What would it mean id if love became the rubric by which we really measured our lives?