The Fleeting Time

Is it just me, or does life seem to be passing by more quickly as I get older? I mean, wasn't it Friday just yesterday? And I thought Christmas was last weekend... It wasn't too long ago that I remember thinking that it was going to take forever to grow up. Everything in the future seemed so far away, so distant, almost an eternity away.

But now, 60 years old almost seems eminent. Holiday's used to take forever to come, now it seems as though I have to keep my eyes propped open lest I blink and miss them.

This all reminded me of Psalm 39:4 (and I had to looks this up, I can't claim to have had this memorized)

“O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!"

We're only on this earth for a short time before moving on to our eternal home. So use the time that our Father has given you.

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

Psalms 190:12

God Speed,
Paul

I Don't Have Time. (Really?)

"When I get home from work I don't have enough time to do the things that have to get done, " You say. 

 "I just don't have time to read books, " You lament.

"I'd love to read more books, but..."

But, but, but.

Excuses, that's what I hear Paul, excuses. Reasons why you can't, or wont, do the things that you say are important to you.

But my dear Paul, don't you have two (government mandated) 15 minute breaks at work? 

"Well yes..."

And what do you do on said breaks?

"Oh I do lots of things, I check my G+, FaceBook, The Blaze, get distracted, go on rabbit trails, etc."

So you have time to do all that, and yet you don't have time to read books?

"..."

This was my conscience convicting me this morning as I was trying to figure out how I could get more book reading into my daily life. None of us have as much time as we would like. But that's why we have to be purposeful in how we spend the time that we have been given. Google+ is great, as is FaceBook and the rest, but on my work breaks I'm going to prioritize reading good literature (and occasionally posting about it).


How about you? How will you capitalize on the spare moments between tasks? Will you fritter them away, or will you "redeem the time" (Eph 5:16) for the furtherance of Christ's Kingdom?

Are We Here for the Long Haul?

"Any theology that does not live with the sense of the immediate return of Christ is a theology that takes the edge off the urgency of faith. But any theology that does not cause us to live as though the world will be here for thousands of years is a theology that leads us into social irresponsibility."
        ~Tony Campolo in Four Views on the Book of Revelation

Wow wow wow! This is really accurate! I remember the feeling when I became unconvinced of dispensational premillennialism that I had time here to plan for the long term. The feeling that I don't have to rush for fear of being raptured or called away any minute was profoundly impactful. Mr. Campolo's last statement I think is especially true, "... any theology that does not cause us to live as though the world will be here for thousands of years is a theology that leads us into social irresponsibility." How many Christians have given up on this world because of the faulty notion that we're not going to be here very long, and therefore don't have to worry about the world at large, socially, politically, or morally? 

Here's the book on Goodreads, highly recommended:

Goodreads

And if you want to pick up a hard copy, here's the Amazon link:

Amazon

~Paul

A Shiny Sink

Sinks - We all have them.

Shiny, clean, spotless sinks - Most of us don't have them.

I just got home from work, and was greeted by a very clean kitchen. So when I was finished making my afternoon snack (carefully seasoned mashed potatoes), I almost threw the spatula into the sink. But then thought about all the work that someone in my family had done to get the sink to it's current sparkling condition. I felt ashamed that I, in my laziness, was about to toss a soiled utensil into it, marring it's pristine condition.

So I didn't. I grabbed the scrub brush, took literally less than 15 seconds to clean the spatula, and add it to the drying rack.

It's so much easier to keep a space clean once it's completely clean, because leaving the first item out is always the hardest. By not leaving my spent spatula in the sink, I helped keep the kitchen clean for that much longer. 

Hmmm, now perhaps I should clean my room, because it literally looks like a tornado went through it...

God Will I Fear

In my morning reading today I was struck by three verses from Psalm 46. They perfectly express what I imperfectly attempted to express in What Do You Fear. Fear of the dark seems petty in light of not fearing "though the earth gives way." What a mighty Lord and Savior we serve!

     1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
     2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be move into the heart of the sea,
     3 though its waters roar and foam,
through the mountains tremble at it's swelling.
   Selah. 

In Christ,

Paul

What Do You Fear

Last night I accompanied my youngest sister out to do the animals because it was well after sun down. She hasn't quite gotten over her fear of the dark, but she's doing way better than I was at her age! But as I helped her shoo the last of the chickens into their barn, I started thinking about fear.

Fear of the dark is something that it seems most people suffer from at some point in their life. But why? What's so scary about the dark? I would wager that it's not actually the dark that scares people, it's what could be in the dark that has some people (my former self included) jumping at every rustle or snap. Sophocles once said

"To him who is in fear, everything rustles."

It's really fear of the unknown. When we don't know what's out there, our minds can be uncannily  good at scaring the dickens out of us with the ridiculous, and more often than not, unreasonable scenarios that it can come up with.

But as a man whom I respect much more than him of the above quote has said,

"My religious belief teaches me that I’m just as safe on the battlefield as I am in my bed.  The Lord has already appointed the day of my death so I need not worry about that." ~Stonewall Jackson

Fear of anything shows a lack of trust in God. If I'm afraid of what could be out there just because I can't see it, that is evidence that I lack trust in my Savior. If I truly love Him, and trust His plans
and timing, then I should be one of the most fearless people alive!

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love" ~1 John 4:18"

I'm Back!

Four-hundred and seventy days since I last posted. I'd say that's a long enough break.

But It's time to break the silence, and I'm reentering the blogosphere! I'm not entirely sure what the tenor of my blog will be now, by the grace of God, I'm not the same person I was a year and a quarter ago, and hopefully that will be reflected in my writing. But here's one of the main realizations that I had sometime last year, which I think will impact my blogging significantly:

Longer isn't inherently better.

Really, it's not. Now normally I'd be one of the first to say that Twitter, with it's 140 character limit, is dumbing us down, and reducing our attention spans, and that rather than reading what a bunch of twits have tweeted (and I say that in the most loving way), you should be reading a book, and preferably one that's at least 500 pages long. But sometime last year the Lord showed me that I was not only being hypocritical (because I'm not reading any 500+ page books right now either), but that there is a place for short thoughts. I follow a number of blogs, and I must confess that when a post is more than one or two thousand words, I start skimming. Not that there's anything at all wrong with long blog posts, but if I'm going to devote that much time to reading, I should be working through a book, especially since I have often lamented my lack of time for reading books.

It was this perspective, that longer is better, that I think partially contributed to my blogging stasis. I kept waiting until I had a long post to write, but even when I did, I usually didn't have time to sit down and write. So it never happened, and eventually I simply fell out of the habit of writing.
Also contributing to my return is a number of close friends (you know who you are, thanks!) who have all encouraged me to start writing again. I've taken two college writing classes in the last year, and I don't want my new found (though still rough) skills as a writer to deteriorate.



So with their encouragement and new found purpose, I plan on blogging again, and hopefully with more regularity than in times past. There are a couple of other things that have developed in the last couple of months that I'd like to tell you all about, so stay tuned.

In Christ,
Paul

Creativity

Have you ever thought about creativity, and how it comes about? I've been trying to come up with an idea for a short film, but story telling has never been my strong suit. I know that there are people from whom stories and strains simply emanate, but that's not me. So I got to thinking, is that sort of creativity always a gift, or a talent, that you either have or don't? Or is it a skill that can be developed like math or writing? If so, how does one go about said daunting task?

The Importance of being honest.

My Dad runs a trucking company, so we hear about the administrative things that happen there from time to time. I just talked to Dad briefly on the phone this morning, but I happened to call him just as he was pulling into the shop, and he said that he had two terminations that morning. I asked if a truck had rolled or something (that being a common cause of a termination), but it wasn't an accident. The two drivers had been fudging their logbooks (drivers equivalent to a time card). So they're being fired, not because they did a bad job, but because they were dishonest. So no matter how good of a job you do, if you aren't honest, it's all for naught.

More Valuable than Rubies

We value items based on a couple of things. One of those is how much we paid for it. When we get something for free, it's not a big deal if it gets damaged. But if we spend a lot on something, we get really upset if it gets even the smallest of scratches.
How much more then does the Father care for us? He didn't redeem us for free, He paid the price of His own Son's blood as our ransom!

We are so valuable to Him, how it must grieve Him when he sees us not walking with Him, according to His commands and desires?

Just an interesting thought from church this week.