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“ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your
life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” – James 4:14
(full
text James 4:13-17)
What are you doing this weekend? Going to the beach, taking Mom out for a nice
dinner (don’t forget Mother’s day is Sunday), going to the kids soccer game,
mowing the lawn, working, studying for finals or just relaxing with a good
book. These are typical answers you
might get if you went out onto the street today and asked this question to
random people passing by. All of us have
plans for tomorrow, the next day and even out through the next few weeks. Some plan a year in advance or multiple years
in advance when big things are coming on the horizon. Yet, few of us will acknowledge the fact that
we truly don’t control any of it. We can
lay out plans and even put them into our day-timer, but what happens when
something unexpected happens.
You plan a weekend birthday party at the park, invite 20 kids, hire a clown and setup a bouncy house and even pony rides. Everything is ready and the excitement is building. Your 5 year old is thrilled out of her mind to have such an awesome party. You wake up on Saturday morning to a heavy fog. By 9 AM it has turned to a light mist and the clouds are getting darker. The wind is getting more fierce and the heavy rain starts around 10:30 just as you were planning to head to the park. Gail force winds begin to blow, trees are actually falling in the front yard and one falls right across the drive way, blocking your ability to leave. Your child comes bounding down the stairs, dressed in her favorite party dress. What are you going to say to her?
This is an extreme, of course, but a demonstration that we are not in control. As organized, scheduled and dedicated we are to making sure that things run smoothly in our life, it truly is something we manage, not something we control. In all of time, the 90 to 120 years you spend on this planet are but a blip on the radar. I use this analogy. Stretch a rope from Houston, Texas to the moon and back again. As you look down at the beginning end of the rope you see an ant crawling from the dirt onto the rope. The length of that ant’s body represents the amount of time you are alive on this earth. The rest of the length of rope represents the amount of time you will spend in eternity – either hell or heaven.
You see the comparison? We focus so much on our time here, when in reality it is nothing compared to our time in the here-after. We should be living every moment of every day on this earth focusing on where we are going, rather than where we are. This means reaching the world for God and enhancing His Kingdom on this earth through our actions and spreading His love, peace, mercy and grace. We know the things that God asks, yet we choose not to do these things, because we are focused on our plans and not His. Face it, we allow our schedule to determine our ability to do the will of God. In essence we are putting Him second or third in our priority list in life, except on Sunday mornings – right? God’s rightful place is at the top of the list and if we indeed planned our day, week, month and year around His plan first and then our plan, don’t you believe your life would be very different than it is today? Think this through today, and ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing with your time.
ACTION: 86,200 seconds in a day. That’s all you get. How many will you give to God’s work? Even if you followed the biblical principal of tithing you would give 2 hrs and 24 mins (8,620 seconds) to God. Are you? Will you? Could you squeeze Him in there each day somehow? If not, what is more important in your daily schedule than God? Perhaps that is the problem.
You plan a weekend birthday party at the park, invite 20 kids, hire a clown and setup a bouncy house and even pony rides. Everything is ready and the excitement is building. Your 5 year old is thrilled out of her mind to have such an awesome party. You wake up on Saturday morning to a heavy fog. By 9 AM it has turned to a light mist and the clouds are getting darker. The wind is getting more fierce and the heavy rain starts around 10:30 just as you were planning to head to the park. Gail force winds begin to blow, trees are actually falling in the front yard and one falls right across the drive way, blocking your ability to leave. Your child comes bounding down the stairs, dressed in her favorite party dress. What are you going to say to her?
This is an extreme, of course, but a demonstration that we are not in control. As organized, scheduled and dedicated we are to making sure that things run smoothly in our life, it truly is something we manage, not something we control. In all of time, the 90 to 120 years you spend on this planet are but a blip on the radar. I use this analogy. Stretch a rope from Houston, Texas to the moon and back again. As you look down at the beginning end of the rope you see an ant crawling from the dirt onto the rope. The length of that ant’s body represents the amount of time you are alive on this earth. The rest of the length of rope represents the amount of time you will spend in eternity – either hell or heaven.
You see the comparison? We focus so much on our time here, when in reality it is nothing compared to our time in the here-after. We should be living every moment of every day on this earth focusing on where we are going, rather than where we are. This means reaching the world for God and enhancing His Kingdom on this earth through our actions and spreading His love, peace, mercy and grace. We know the things that God asks, yet we choose not to do these things, because we are focused on our plans and not His. Face it, we allow our schedule to determine our ability to do the will of God. In essence we are putting Him second or third in our priority list in life, except on Sunday mornings – right? God’s rightful place is at the top of the list and if we indeed planned our day, week, month and year around His plan first and then our plan, don’t you believe your life would be very different than it is today? Think this through today, and ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing with your time.
ACTION: 86,200 seconds in a day. That’s all you get. How many will you give to God’s work? Even if you followed the biblical principal of tithing you would give 2 hrs and 24 mins (8,620 seconds) to God. Are you? Will you? Could you squeeze Him in there each day somehow? If not, what is more important in your daily schedule than God? Perhaps that is the problem.
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