Yesterday? Tomorrow? Today! - Live On!!!

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” – James, brother of Jesus (James 4:13-15)

I once read Chuck Swindoll say these words, “Snap a telescopic lens on your perspective for the next few minutes. Pull yourself up close . . . close enough to see the real you. From the reflection in your mental mirror, pay close attention to your life. Try your best to examine the inner "you" on the basis of time.” We need to be able to look back on our life. We need to look at our present. We then need to conjecture, based on our current spiritual state, mental state and life disposition that our future might be.

I’m asking you, as did Chuck, to look both back and forward. It is hard. It is hard primarily because we can’t look either back or forward without considering them from our current life situation.

Looking Back. I have found what seems from my narrow and subjective (as well as small sample set) analysis that if you are over 50 years of age you will come to one conclusion that seems universal: LIFE IS SHORT. I think however this is Biblical.

On your own read through Psalm 90 and you will conclude it is loaded with messages relating to the brevity of life. Life is short . . . like yesterday when it passes by . . . as a watch in the night . . . like grass, it sprouts and withers . . . like a sigh, soon it is gone.

If you aren’t feeling it now you will – Yes and amen…Life is short.

Looking Ahead. If you look back on your life and scratch your head and think to yourself, “How did I get here?” you will conclude about the future one overriding theme: LIFE IS UNCERTAIN AND THEREFORE WILL BE UNCERTAIN. “Unexpected." Could be the overarching adjective placed on most all of our future experiences.

Unexpected:

•         Surgery
•         Transfer
•         Accomplishment
•         Loss
•         Benefit
•         Sickness
•        Promotion/demotion
•        Gift
•        Death

·      (Fill in the blank)                                                                   

Guys, our lives are truly uncertain.

We’re left to come back to the nasty now and now. How should we view our “today?”

There are lots of ways to look at life. I prefer the power of God and the realization life is to be lived or feared and therefore since God does not give us fear (2 Timothy 1:7) these are 4 powerful words: LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE! They don’t contradict our behind and forward lessons. Nor do they require us to be Polly-Anna types with rose-colored glasses. But, may I also point out they don’t leave us hopeless and forlorn. For as we look at the present, we discover: LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE!

Since life is short it needs to be viewed as jam-packed with challenging possibilities and mysterious twists and turns. Because it’s uncertain, it's filled with rigorous nuance and the ability to make “on the fly” adjustments. I'm convinced that's much of what Jesus meant when He promised us an abundant life (Gospel of John 10:8-10). We should expect our lives to be abundant with challenges, both positive and negative but also running over with possibilities. We need to see from a position of “the heavenlies” that our lives are filled with opportunities to adapt, shift, alter, and change. Come to think of it, that's the secret of staying young. It is also the path that leads to changing the world for the Kingdom of God.

With each new dawn, life delivers a package to your front door. In the Spirit-filled life you answer that life full of the Power and Potential of God! When you hear that ring tomorrow morning, try something new; have Christ in you answer the door for you.

Life's most challenging opportunities are often deceptively disguised as unsolvable problems. But when the powerful King of the Universe is in charge of problems, challenges… the impossible then huge and massive and amazing and beautiful life, health, power, grace, goodness, mercy and abundance happens! Expect it!

Oh! Once last thing…James didn’t mean to say, “If the Lord wills (which we cannot possibly know or understand) we shall do this (unknowable thing) or that (other unknowable thing). No, it means, “The Lord showed me this specific thing to do and this other specific thing and therefore I will do those things.” Apparently James wasn’t a Baptist! J

I remain…

InHISGrip,
  ~J~