Jet Lag and God Lag

We humans are very complicated creatures. In our genes and many other parts of our minds and bodies, we have all sorts of biological clocks ticking 24-hours a day. The Free Dictionary defines this as Circadian Rhythms in part: “present in humans and most other animals, it is generated by an internal clock that is synchronized to light-dark cycles and other cues in an organism's environment. This internal clock accounts for waking up at the same time every day even without an alarm clock.”

Flowers open and close due to these circadian rhythms just as we humans are impacted. Biologists have observed that birds exposed to artificial light for a long time sometimes build nests in the fall instead of the spring.

 Many are familiar with or have experienced aircraft Jet Lag when flying across several time zones. If a person flies from California to New York arriving at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, their body feels like it’s 4:00 a.m. because they had been living in the Pacific Time Zone where their bodies had become fixed on that cycle of light and dark. 

There are all sorts of ways the circadian rhythms affect us in causing strange things to happen in our bodies that most of us don’t understand. They are controlled mainly by the release of hormones. In humans, the internal clock is located within the brain's hypothalamus and pineal gland, which releases melatonin in response to the information it receives from photoreceptors in the retina. This “melatonin” is released in a cyclical manner. Now don’t we understand how it all works?

It looks like God did His homework when He created life on Earth. He put in all sorts of ways that we can function daily in the environment He has placed us in. He gave us this gift of life with the idea that we’d be around for a while and would need to be adaptable to the world around us. This was not the end of His work. As some have thought, He did not just wind the clock of creation and walk away from it never to return. His creation efforts were not just a game for Him. He created all things as a loving God wanting His children to have the best possible environment and to have a relationship with each of His children.

In the Gospel of John 1:3-5 it is proclaimed in describing Jesus the Christ that, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Yes, God did want a relationship with His Children, but in giving us the privilege to seek or not to seek Him in our lives, He found that we humans were having a hard time in seeking Him in all things. Thus, He sent His Word Jesus to better connect with His children and us with Him.

The good news for us children is that we don’t have to depend on hormones impacted by the rising and the setting of the Sun to connect with our creator God. The circadian rhythms aren’t needed to accomplish our true and full relationship with God. Yes, the light He sent through Jesus is a forever light to us and darkness can’t overcome it. It is up to each of us to be sure we don’t have God Lag. He is always available.

In the Gospel of John 3:20-21 it is says, “For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”