We can blame yesterday on George Vernon Hudson, a native of New Zealand. In 1895, he proposed Daylight Savings Time. On April 30, 1916, Germany and Austria-Hungry started using it.
“DST was first implemented in the US with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources. Year-round DST, or “War Time”, was implemented again during World War II. After the war, local jurisdictions were free to choose if and when to observe DST until the Uniform Time Act which standardized DST in 1966. Permanent daylight saving time was enacted for the winter of 1974, but there were complaints of children going to school in the dark and working people commuting and starting their work day in pitch darkness during the winter, and it was repealed a year later.”1
On March 9, 2021, then-Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida sponsored the “Sunshine Protection Act of 2021.” It was presented as Senate bill S.623 to the 117th Congress. This bill makes daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time, effective November 5, 2023. It was passed on March 15, 2022, by the Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives never took up the bill, therefore, the bill stalled.2
President Trump has stated on X that he is in favor of eliminating the time change. “Elon Musk, now one of Trump’s most powerful advisers, backed ending the clock-switching practice in November. “Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!” he wrote on social media platform X. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., commented that
the U.S. should “leave it daylight savings time always.” And Vivek Ramaswamy said that the practice was “inefficient & easy to change.”3
While I am totally in favor of making Daylight Savings time the standard time, there are regions of the United States that think otherwise, and their arguments are logical and understandable. “Some places in the U.S. could see sunrises as early as 3:39 a.m. without daylight saving time in summer months, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. But with permanent daylight saving time, some places wouldn’t get sunlight until after 9:45 a.m. in the winter.”4
Man thinks that he has great power to manipulate time, if only by an hour one way or the other. We think we can make up time if we do something quicker. However, the Bible tells us that God is the one who is in control of time. Daniel 2:20-21 records, “Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: (21) And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.”
The 18th c. Baptist theologian and Bible commentator John Gill writes, “Not only of day and night, summer and winter, and times and seasons of prosperity and adversity; but all the changes and revolutions in states and kingdoms, in all times and ages, are from him…” GOD controls time, not man.
DST adversely affects many people and it is estimated that there is a 6% increase in car accidents alone.5 Many will go through the first few days of DST feeling groggy and moody. Besides keeping our clocks on DST, making it the Standard Time, the ultimate solution is found in Psalms 31:14-15. May we practice this today. “But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God. (15) My times are in thy hand…”
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time
2https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623
3https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/02/will-trump-eliminate-daylight-savings-when-do-we-set-clocks-ahead.html
4Ibid.
5https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-dark-side-of-daylight-saving-time
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