“You mean Caribbean time, or St Lucian time?”  That is usually the first question that I ask when someone asks me to meet them.  Time is a liquid commodity in the Caribbean.  It can drive you nuts, or it can be surprisingly refreshing.  The Easter service this year was one of those surprisingly refreshing approaches to time.

A terrible accident took place at 6:30 AM on Easter Sunday on the only main highway connecting the north and south of the island.  Late night (or early morning) revelers were mixed together with early morning Easter worshippers on the road.  A four vehicle wreck ensued killing four people.  The highway was closed for nearly 4 hours while they cleaned up the carnage. It was a sobering way to start an Easter Sunday.

All of the called workers, except for one, were caught on the wrong side of the accident.  Normally the service begins at 9:00 AM.  On this Easter, we didn’t start until 9:50.  For most, you can imagine the pressure and hurriedness that surrounded the called workers as they arrived almost an hour late. Even though I had a good excuse, it is hard to get that concept of time out of your head.  To be honest, I was concerned more with being late than celebrating our Savior’s resurrection.  The look of one worshipper changed my attitude.

During the first hymn, I was going through in my head all things that needed to be thought about.  I could imagine the looks I was going to get for starting so late.  Not wanting to put off the inevitable, I glanced up.  The first person to catch my eye was Tassia Clement; a twenty year-old who had been waiting for an hour and a half for the service to begin.  As I caught her face, she looked at me.  There was no disapproving look, no tapping of the watch.  Instead, there was a smile from ear to ear. She was singing at the top of her lungs and clapping along enthusiastically.  Time was not the most important thing on Easter.  Christ is.

Is time important?  Of course.  We each only have so many days in our life to carry out God’s purpose for us.  But is it more important than the joy of our resurrected Lord?  Not that Sunday.  My anxiety melted.  My voice lifted.  And I worshipped. I didn’t just conduct a worship service.  I worshipped the Lord because even in what would seem to be the most righteous of intentions, I misprioritized time over my Savior.  I worshipped the Lord because even as the pastor of a church who you would think I would have some of this figured out.  Instead, God in his grace tapped me on the shoulder with one smile of a parishioner and reminded me, “I died for your sins.  But I rose that you will be with me.  Rejoice and stop looking at your watch!”

I hope you all had a blessed Easter.  I pray God grant you the time to thank him for his sacrifice and grace.