Beloved in Christ, Though at times we may instinctively divide our lives into categories titled on the one hand, “spiritual,” and on the other, “everything else,” the reality is that the spiritual life is not something that we can relegate to only a part of our experience as human beings. Rather, to grow spiritually means that whatever it is we do—eat, drink, pray, sing, speak, rest, work, play, etc., should be done under the guidance of, and by the power of, the Holy Spirit. Not least of these human activities that we seek to bring under the Spirit’s direction is the way that we mark time itself. Since they are made in God’s image (he who made the passing of the seasons and marked one day out of seven as holy), human beings in every culture have always practiced different ways of keeping time. The question is not whether we will distinguish one day from another, and mark the passage of time with special (or holy) days, but how we will do it. Our culture keeps time in its own way, of course—a calendar that is centered on official “national holidays” (or holy days) when we are encouraged to rest…
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