While there were many joys for me when I lived abroad, there were also some challenges. One of those challenges was adapting my body to new time zones every time I travelled. Flying home for a week at Christmas and then back across the Atlantic forced me to adjust and then readjust to different time zones. My sleep schedule was interrupted, and I was hungry at weird times. As a result, I have learned some well-tested tips on overcoming jet lag for those who traverse time zones.
One thing I always tried to do was to place myself in the new time zone to which I was going as soon as possible, perhaps even before I departed. I ate my meals at the proper times on the new time zone and tried to sleep only at night time. When I adhered to the strict “no snacks and no naps” rule, I found that my body could adapt quickly to the new time zone. I learned to think and act in terms of that new time zone, not the one that felt natural to my body.
As followers of Christ, we live in a different time zone. We live in eternity while we still live on earth. We live in what an Amy Grant song calls “The Now and The Not Yet”: living in one time but in terms of another. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has “set eternity into human hearts.” Thus, as Christians, we find ourselves trying to live in a different time zone—eternity—a challenge that affects our behaviors and our attitudes. Because eternity is in my heart, I choose to live differently. I choose to place my life not on the time clock of the here and now but on the time clock of all eternity.
Now, if I can just convince my Moroccan friends to understand the time difference so that they don’t text me in the middle of the night, I will be a much happier person!