Skip to main content

Teach me...

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. (Psalm 90:12 NLT)
As a new year dawns upon us and we consider the many accomplishments, heartaches, and unfinished business from the previous, it is good to just stop for a moment to consider what it is we take from the past year and what should remain behind. We want to "take" the things we can count as lessons, but we don't want to clutter up this new year with the things best left behind, such as worries, envy, and bitterness. As we "grow in wisdom" we come to understand there a just some things best left in the past and better things we need to focus on in the present!
Benjamin Franklin said, "Lost time is never found again." It makes sense, because time is something like sand slipping through our fingers and just not really able to "remade" no matter how much we try. As we look back over 2016, let us not forget the things we really might see today as disappointments - time slipping through our fingers, business not really finished, but just not really in the cards for us either. We could spend countless hours recalling all those moments and trying to reconstruct them so as to "deal with them" in the present, but honestly, they aren't worth it!
One thing I don't want us to forget is any unfinished business as it relates to us revealing the love of God through our lives or pouring it into the life of another. As we stop to really consider the brevity of life, these are the only moments of "unfinished business" we need to focus on. You might have heard the saying by Samuel Richardson, "Love can draw an elephant through a keyhole," but we don't always remember where we put the key, do we? Some of us need reminders of the unfinished business of drawing through the keyhole into 2017 what will make all the difference in this year, while allowing all the things which need not come through that door in the past.
Brevity is more than a shortness of duration, it is also a conciseness by which a matter is settled. There are some things we need to be concise about, deal with, then move on. Those are the things we don't want to have lingering along for the ride into 2017. They are the things best left in the past. The best thing we might do is just declare them unfinished business, never to be finished, and allow the dust to settle on them. Some are our failures to resolve issues we thought we might be able to, others are things we undertook that we thought we could handle but which only cluttered up our lives with complexity we didn't need. Those which are relational in nature should be dealt with quickly, so as not to continue them into this new year. Those which are failures we just want to keep beating ourselves up about should be forgiven, left in the past, and then we should square ourselves with a new focus on the present. Just sayin!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment if this message has spoken to your heart.

Popular posts from this blog

Sentimental gush

9-11  So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11 MSG) Sentimental gush - that is what I kind of feel when I watch some of those sappy "and they lived happily after" love stories. Yes, I believe people can "be in love" and that "love will find a way" and all those other cliches about love. Don't think I am down on a solidly committed and growing relationship - it is just that our world often portrays love in ways that are totally gushy and then doesn't show the very 'hard' side of that loving being vital and vibrant...
1 comment
Read more

At the right time

Greetings from Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was sent to help God’s chosen people have faith and understand the truth that produces a life of devotion to God. This faith and knowledge make us sure that we have eternal life. God promised that life to us before time began—and God does not lie. At the right time, God let the world know about that life. He did this through the telling of the Good News message, and he trusted me with that work. I told people that message because God our Savior commanded me to. (Titus 1:1-3) Sent to help God's chosen to have faith and understand the truth that produces a life of devotion to God. Maybe that mission is one we can carry on each day as we go about our business of 'living life together'. We may not have been called to form the New Testament churches like Paul was, but we have been called to help others grow in their faith and to come into a deeper understanding of God's truths. Why? God wants a people w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hmmm...seeing things differently now?

Create in me a clean heart, O God; restore within me a sense of being brand new. (Psalm 51:10) Einstein said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."  He was so true in this perception!  The problems we create will never be overcome or changed until we change the way we have been thinking about them!  To change our thought process we often need to change what we are focusing on so often or intensely. If we always see the problem, we will never see the solution standing just beyond it! If all we see is the river in front of us, raging out of control and making it hard to pass over to the other side, we will likely not see the bridge being lowered from the other side! Restoration is a process of not only being "clean" of the sin in our lives, but of being able to look beyond the sin.  We can ask for forgiveness when we have done something we are not happy we have done, but if all we keep thinking about is that thing we asked...
Post a Comment
Read more