Once Upon A Time...

"Once upon a time," said Jesus, to a religion scholar, who was looking for loopholes in Jesus’ message about being good neighbors. "There was a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite, a religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.


"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. And the Samaritan took good care of the man.

"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?" Jesus asked him.

"Why, the one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.

And Jesus said, in so many words: "As you travel the road of life, do the same."

And I can imagine the fellow, if he was anything like me, stammering around with something like: "But, but you mean down every road I travel, every time I travel; and when is this radical behavior supposed to begin?"

"Right now," Jesus might have said. "Right now. There’s no time like the present, there’s no time to waste, don’t wait til later, do it now!"

Maybe to someone like me, in the time and place where I live, Jesus might have made it sound more like this:

"Don’t wait! Don’t wait until you finish school, Until you go back to school
Until you lose ten pounds, Until you gain ten pounds
Until you have kids, Until the kids leave the house
Until you start work, Until you retire
Until you get married, Until you get divorced
Until Friday night, Until Sunday morning
Until you get a new car or home, Until your car or home is paid off
Until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter
Until you are off welfare
Until the first-of-the-month, or the fifteenth-of-the-month
Until your song comes on the radio, or your iPod
Until you’ve had a drink, Until you sober up
Until you die, Until you are born again
Don’t wait! Because there is no better time than right now. Because, dude, your once-upon-a-time could be right now."

~ Celine Dion sang these words:


"What do you say to takin' chances?
What do you say to jumpin' off the edge?
Never knowin' if there's solid ground below
Or a hand to hold or hell to pay
What do you say? What do you say?"

Here are some words about time from Mitch Albom’s newest book, The Time Keeper:


(We) alone measure time.
(We) alone chime the hour.
And because of this, (we) alone suffer a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures.
A fear of time running out.

Consider the word time.
We use so many phrases with it. Pass time. Waste time. Kill time. Lose time.
In good time. About time. Take your time. Save time.
A long time. Right on time. Out of time. Mind the time. Be on time. Spare time. Keep time. Stall for time.

And along comes Jesus to remind us that NOW time does count.
That because we are connected, HOW we treat each other as we travel the road of life, for whatever amount of time we are given to travel it, is important.

Its important to be ready for any once-upon-a-time that comes our way.

And the beauty of once-upon-a-time is that you cannot waste it in advance.