Twelve Hours in a Day

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world." (John 11:9)

As I was discussing this with one of my daughters a few days ago and pondering with her over the possible meaning of this, she shared a thought that helped me begin to better understand something about the twelve hours. This morning I again began thinking about what possibilities might be contained in this phrase.

What are hours anyway? They are artificial increments or divisions of time into equal parts for the sake of organizing our lives. If we lived without any time divisions or units we would simply have daytime and nighttime and no more. But humans have come up with a system of dividing daily time into set increments for the purpose of scheduling ourselves in order to better plan and utilize our time efficiently.

It seems to me that possibly Jesus may have been referring to this idea of having a schedule when He mentioned that there are twelve hours in a day. He may have been reminding His disciples that what was most important was not to focus on potential threats from others but to remain always cognizant of the Father's timetable and schedule for our lives. Threats of harm or disasters usually disrupt our schedules and introduce chaos into our lives diverting us from the normal business of living life in a structured way. God is not the author of confusion but operates within very precise principles and on an irrevocable schedule, albeit beyond our comprehension.

Jesus chose to live daily according to God's schedule rather than allowing the attempts of others to intimidate Him to bring chaos into His life or divert Him from the plans of His Father for His life. The temptation was always there to become distracted from the plans of His Father for that day, but Jesus constantly resisted those diversions and therefore always lived in the light of day because He kept everything in the perspective of His Father's light. Because of this He never stumbled.

By referring to twelve hours in a day, Jesus was in essence using shorthand to refer to this idea of staying organized within the Father's will. That does not mean that everything we plan as a Christian is going to pan out just as we intend for it to, but it does mean that we should not live a life of chaos and disorganization and think that this is the life of faith. Jesus daily connected with His Father each morning to synchronize His timetable with His Father's and to receive needed instructions, inspiration, peace and grace that He would need for that day. He laid all of His own personal plans at the feet of His Father and always deferred to His Father's intentions for Him.

Even though from our perspective it seems that Jesus' life was often interrupted while He was doing things, in actuality those interruptions were actually part of God's plans for Him and were already in His schedule for that day. Because Jesus kept His spirit in tune with His Father's Spirit He was never flustered or annoyed when sudden 'surprises' arose. He took everything in stride and was always ready to dispense grace, wisdom, healing and love wherever His Father's plans led Him. He always stayed right on schedule no matter how dangerous things appeared to be. He never allowed threats or enticements to divert Him from the schedule of His Father for His life.

A twelve hour day implies that we can live a life of following God's schedule for us too. Jesus was our example and if we choose to synchronize our lives with God's plans for us as Jesus did, we too can experience living in the light even as He was in the light and will find freedom from stumbling over the threats or enticements of the enemy. The reason Jesus brought this up at this point in the story is because the disciples were allowing fear of the enemy's threats to become a point of stumbling for them. They were failing to discern the schedule of God both for Jesus and for their own lives. Jesus was reminding them that there is nothing to fear for the future as long as we remain in cooperation with God's schedule for us, trusting His heart to lead us and arrange all the circumstances of our lives.

It is when we allow circumstances, threats or temptations to distract us from staying in step with God's schedule for us that we find ourselves in the dark stumbling around and tripping over things. When we do find ourselves stumbling it should be an alert for us that we have gotten off schedule, that we have taken our eyes off the light and have allowed something to eclipse the Light that is supposed to be living inside of us, guiding us and keeping us on schedule.

God's plans for us each day are not just vague and generic. He knows everything in detail that is going to happen in our life each day ahead of time and is ready to provide us with everything we need to meet each situation. However, that does not mean that He is going to reveal to us the details of what will happen each day. He may or may not share with us what is going to transpire that day, but that is not necessary in order to trust His heart or stay in step with His schedule for us. He does not hand us a to-do list each day for us to check off like an impersonal boss might do; God wants to have us allow Him to live from the inside by means of His Spirit and let Him be the timing signal for us rather than depending on foreknowledge of where our lives will take us. This is the true life of faith.

So what I am seeing more clearly now is that this reference to twelve hours in a day is Jesus' way of saying to me that I need to stay focused and connected with His Spirit so that His plans for me may make my life immune to the varied attempts by the enemy to keep me in fear and chaos. I must be willing to allow God to bring organization into my day and to train me to make plans the best I can but then surrender those plans to be carried out or given up as His providence indicates throughout the day.

One more thought that came to me about Jesus' reference to twelve hours in a day that may or may not be relevant. Jesus was speaking to twelve men who were then His disciples who were alarmed at His plans to return to very dangerous territory according to their perceptions. He was saying to them that He and His Father would never ignore them from being too busy. It has been said that it would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day contemplating the life of Christ. Jesus could have been saying here that He could always spend a full hour of undivided attention with each disciple every day of their life if they chose to take that time to spend it with Him. There was enough time in every day for everyone of them to connect with Jesus and receive the grace and peace they needed so they would not be afraid of things that sought to distract their attention from Him.

If I am willing to carve out at least an hour each day to focus on listening to Jesus and connecting with His heart, receiving His Spirit and disposition into my life, I too may enjoy living life in the same perspective and attitude Jesus had. I need not fear what others fear because my life is not controlled by the tyranny of the urgent or the intimidations of terror. I can live above the pettiness and shallowness of this world with different priorities and can live a life right on schedule in synchronization with God's plans even when appearances seem to indicate otherwise. I can have peace in the midst of apparent chaos in my life because my walk is timed to the sound of a different cadence from a more secure source of reality.