by Shane Combs
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die…” (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2)
I remember back when I was 12 years old. I was laying in my bed and was suddenly gripped by thoughts of growing old. Perhaps I had heard people talking about aging, I don’t remember. Suddenly, I was old, time had passed me by and I longed for all the wasted years. It seemed, for a moment in time, horror gripped my young soul! Then suddenly, like a cloud, the feeling passed and I was still young and had the future in front of me! Eight years later those critical years are now passed and I can truly look back on many mistakes. I think back on wasted dreams, goals, and ambitions. Too much time spent trying to please myself and coming up empty.
Too many of our Christians today suffer from an identity crisis. We have, at some point, accepted Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Saviour, we call ourselves Christians, but do little to apply it to our every day living. We are plagued by the same worries as those lost in the world. We spend our time looking back on loss and missed opportunities, or looking ahead to how our end will be.
“A time to be born, and a time to die.” Notice, 2 specifics, birth and death. We have no control over either of these. A birth we can’t remember, and a death we can’t prevent! So why focus on either of these? What we do have, however, is the time between our birth and death. God’s message to his young church would be take each day, one at a time, and live it to the fullest!
There is, however, a catch. We are the called out and chosen of God. The reason we suffer so much within ourselves is because “live life to the fullest” means, to too many Christians, satisfy self. We are crucified with Christ, so if we are to live, it should be Christ living within us. (Galatians 2:20) My goals and ambitions died when I came to Christ. As I read his word and diligently seek his will he is continually cultivating new dreams within me!
You will be remembered for what you do between birth and death. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is out of our hands. We have a world lost, poor, hungry, naked and dying all around us. We have been chosen to take the love of God to these people in need. Find the place where Christ wants you and can use you. No matter if it’s a foreign field or the public school seek ways to apply the love of God in everything you do.
As I look back, I’m glad I did not get many of my foolish desires. As I look ahead, I realize I don’t know what is best for me. I’m glad God only requires me to work for him one day at a time. My prayer, through all the times of change in my life that will come, is help me to stay in season with your Spirit and will. For, in this kind of living, God can truly get the glory out of our lives and we can find that place of satisfaction we are seeking in our lives.
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)
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