Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Night Shot of Christmas Yard Decor.
Photo By Marilyn Clark,
League City Area News Online

Preparing for the New Year

By Pastor William Jenkins

December 21, 2006

Dr. Richard Hoffman of New York says that our modern day civilization’s three major killers are “calendars, clocks, and telephones.” He calls this the “tyranny of an accelerated life.” Since it is so difficult to avoid “the tyranny of an accelerated life”, what are we to do? Here are three quick suggestions:

1. Travel light.

That is, decide what is really important to you and give your energies to those things. We can’t do everything, so we have to decide what really matters and weed out the rest. The hardest trade-offs are not between something bad and something good but between something good and something better.

2. Take one step at a time.

Do one thing at a time. Live one day at a time. Some of the old elementary readers had a story about a clock that stopped ticking. It figured out that it would have to tick more than 31 million times in one year. Overwhelmed by the thought, the clock just “up and quit” until someone reminded the clock that it wouldn’t have to tick them all at once…just one tick at a time. Jesus spoke about this in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “Don’t be anxious about tomorrow. Just take it one day at a time, one thing at a time, one step at a time.”

3. Relax our souls in God.

Jesus’ Parable of The Sower speaks to this. The idea is to sow the seed the best you can and trust God with the harvest. Don’t worry about things you have no control over. God is in control. Do what you can and leave the rest to Him.

In the New Year don’t become victimized by the tyranny of an “accelerated life.”

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

HYPERLINK - http://www.lcumc.org