HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 15, 2025 – I wrote a few days ago about solar time and how it differs from Daylight Savings Time (DST). I mentioned that our bodies are naturally synched to the sun, not to an artificial construct like DST, and that because DST jumps ahead of solar time (up to two hours in some locations), we have the constant sense that we’re running behind and don’t have enough time to finish what we need to finish. Being significantly ahead of solar time also gives us the sense that we’re never quite ‘in the moment’ – that lunch time is not really lunch time, dinner time not really dinner time, and bedtime not really bedtime. We perpetually feel out of synch with time because we are actually out of synch with time, if we follow DST.

In Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I’m currently stationed, DST is nearly one and half hours ahead of solar time. Ironically, the city has an historic cannon that thunders to life once a day to mark high noon. Except it isn’t really high noon when the cannon booms; under DST, it’s only a little past 10:30 a.m., and the sun is nowhere near its zenith.

Should this concern us as born-again believers? Is there a spiritual impact in following fake time like DST that can be up to two hours ahead of real time? I believe there is a profound spiritual impact and that it’s rooted in the constant stress generated from being forced to schedule daily activities according to a time marker that is patently false. The constant stress affects our patience level, as well as the time we spend with God and Jesus in prayer and the time we spend reading God’s Word. How many times have you cut short or even foregone a Bible reading session because you felt you didn’t have enough time? The truth is – you did have enough time; you were just following the wrong clock

DST is fake time. It forces us to rise before we’re sufficiently rested, eat when we’re not particularly hungry, fast when we are hungry, and go to bed when we’re not yet sleepy. You can’t win if you schedule your daily activities according to DST, as you’ll always feel like you’re running behind or otherwise out of synch with time.

I recently started following solar time, and it constantly amazes me how different time feels to me. When I ignore worldly timekeepers, I experience a deep sense of having plenty of time to do whatever it is I need to do. I don’t feel rushed. I don’t feel like I’m falling behind. If I happen to glance at one of my clocks (all set to local solar time), I don’t experience that unwelcome jolt of feeling that I’m running late, which DST always gives me. I have plenty of time for God. I have plenty of time for his Word. And I have plenty of time for Jesus, though I’m still working on the patience thing (lol).

I heartily recommend switching to local solar time and scheduling your daily rounds according to it.

And if the worldly clock nags you that you’re running late, just ignore it.