Cyndi Lauper’s song “Time After Time” was a big hit in the 1980s, but I was too young at the time to have any sense of the deeper message in the lyrics. Essentially, the song is about sustained, reliable, unconditional love. No matter what is going on the life of the beloved, the lover promises to be there for support, time after time. The refrain repeats; “If you’re lost, you can look, and you will find me/ Time after time/ If you fall, I will catch you, I’ll be waiting/ Time after time.”
This song reminds me of the fidelity of God revealed in the Scriptures. All God wants to do is to love us; all God asks of us is to love back. Yet, we human beings get interested in other things, love other things, want other things, and pursue other things–time after time. However, God’s fidelity and mercy cannot be outdone by our foolish decision-making. God’s mercy endures forever. God’s love endure forever. God remains there for us, time after time.
These last few months I have not been at my best. I know that. Projects remain incomplete. The piles in my office are growing their own piles in protest to my neglect of them. Some days I can get a few tasks accomplished and off the “to-do” list. The rest of the time I feel like I am stuck in limbo between the already and the not yet. The best I can manage is to wander outside and sit on a bench and wait for God to sit next to me as a consoling presence in these tumultuous times.
God is faithful, time after time.
By Sister Therese Haydel, OSB