“Life goes by so fast” – we hear those words as children and still we can’t wait for Christmas to come every December.
As we grow up, we get impatient and begin to long for those magical days to hit supersonic speed. It becomes a race of what is next on the horizon. We always want to be old enough to go to kindergarten, play little league, go to high school, date, drive, attend college, get a job, fall in love, get married, have kids, see grandkids, and stay alive and productive when others might hint that your best days are in the rearview mirror.
Before you know it, you discover the clock is no longer your friend, and you won’t shed a tear if you never see a calendar again. Maybe, it’s time for anticipation to grow into appreciation. Rather than yearning for what’s next, what if we stuck around long enough for what is happening right now?
Life has certainly changed a lot since I first came on the scene, and while we have raced forward a zillion miles an hour in the fields of technology, how far have we truly come? If I had a choice right now of what time I could live in, without hesitation, I would return to the seasons I couldn’t wait to leave.
Lord, are we ever truly content and satisfied this side of heaven?
Over the weekend, I watched several old movies on TCM. I like old films and have always have preferred the entertainment of the 1940s and 50s over what is offered today.
Some say I’m old-fashioned, but I like to refer to it as taste and standards.
I could watch Margaret O’Brien cry all night long because whatever she is in, you can bet she is praying hard for somebody. Nobody lights up the big screen like Doris Day, who, they say, is as wholesome as apple pie – but there is nothing wrong with that – and lots of ice cream.
I don’t need raunchy words and gruesome special effects. I want faith, hope and a lot of love to inspire my hungry heart. You can watch the latest cable programs if you want, but you will find me in Hope Valley on Sunday nights and Dodge City during the week.
Life is not all that poor looking in glorious black and white. Maybe, it’s the sobering effect of being diagnosed with cancer that has opened my eyes wider, or maybe it’s just another level of my faith in God kicking into a higher gear, but I am not buying into the rhetoric that we are better off as a nation now than we have ever been.
There is far too much pride in humanity and not enough healthy humility, when it comes to our behavior as a country.
The Bible teaches us that a healthy reverence and holy respect for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Lord’s presence in life provides the purpose and parameters by which we can make each moment matter. The minutes we spend now are invested into an eternity still to come. This means that I do not tell heaven’s headquarters how to guide life down here, but I look up to a higher power for my direction and duties.
God’s word in me translates to the reality of the Spirit living through me in our world. I do not have to follow the crowd into the pit of despair if the Lord is calling me elsewhere. No matter how many breaths I have left, I can make a difference because Jesus taught me how to breathe.
When that hour comes where I take my last breath, it will only transition into my first breath in glory, which is why I am depending on a new oxygen source to fuel my journey while I am here. Similar to the astronauts on the moon needing their spacesuits to function somewhere unfriendly to their bodies, I have decided to power up via prayer.
How can I go wrong by navigating two principles of loving God and loving others as He loves me?
I think it is time we don’t worry so much about being politically correct as we care about being biblically literate and alive in our behavior of what we claim to believe.
I can still long to be a Jimmy Stewart in a chaotic cartoon system. Just because it seems like the politics favor Mr. Potter for a quick fix, I am anchored to George Bailey and the practices of the building and loan. I am Gary Cooper in high noon, not backing down to the mob mentality of situation ethics. I am Father O’Malley, who will fight for the church while others lick their chops over tearing it down.
I am dedicated to making music amid the mess and singing loud when the censors try to silence my sermons of going God’s way, even if nobody else longs to travel. I believe that who I am is not limited to the physical body I am stuck in, but the spiritual soul that God gave me that can still soar like an eagle, even while going through radiation treatments.
You can crawl if you want, but I am at my best when I fly, and if you ask me, I believe the same for you. Does anybody know what time it is? Does anybody care?
Time is not on our side, and we cannot stuff it in a bottle, even if we tried. If that is the case, we must first cherish every moment as if it were our last seconds to savor life’s lasting parts. If I choose the values of yesteryear to still be my steering wheel today, let Jesus take charge and lead me where there will always be a tomorrow and the guarantee that the best is yet to come.
The four-letter words that I want to be known for are love, hope and life. For I know whom I have believed in, and I am persuaded that He can hold tightly all that I have committed to Him until the day that I finally arrive in the land where we will never grow old.
ED. NOTE: The author is the senior pastor of The Lighthouse Church, 1248 Route 9 South, Court House.
