“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”-Ferris Bueller
I find myself asking ‘If I want to be Ferris, why do I live like Cameron?’ You ever do that? I know as sure as I’m writing this that if I want to seize the day and throw off the bowlines and go explore, dream and discover I’m going to have to change the way I think. Not only that I’m going to have to quit lying to myself about how much time I actually have here. I’m going to have to admit to my own mortality.
The fact is none of us knows what’s going to happen next week, next month or next year. Proverbs 27:1 says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” and it’s true. We put off and we bargain with ourselves over our dreams and the things we really feel we should be doing. Lyanla Vanzant said it best: “If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.” Unfortunately this doesn’t stop any of us from betting on the future to accomplish what we want to do. We may even spend an inordinate amount of time talking about how we will do this and we will do that and it’s always “someday”. Proverbs 14:23 says in part, “…mere talk tends only to poverty” and the sad part is we’re giving up on the richness that could be our lives. Deep down I think we probably know that though, don’t we?
James gets tough on us that get into self-deception too much. In 4:17 it’s written: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” If you’re like me you’re hoping that they’re talking about bigger “right” things than whether we’re living a fulfilled life but like someone once told me, right is right regardless of what you’re talking about (thanks Dad). Sometimes I hate it when I remember stuff. The truth is maybe after all these years I’ve developed the ‘ol justification muscle just a bit too much.
I tell myself I’ve got it all figured out (you know, age and wisdom and all that) and I’m in line with what it says in 1 Corinthians 14:40: “But all things should be done decently and in order.” My problems occur when the finish line gets moved. Like that book about someone moving the cheese (I never read it, maybe I should have). It’s just that as soon as I get it all mapped out, my plans go up in smoke. In the back of my mind I hear James calling me out. ”Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15) It seems to me that I ought to listen to what the Lord puts on my heart and stop planning and putting it off. Because none of us knows how much time we have.
No one likes to think about dying but with the exception of one guy, death pretty much gets us all. We know this and yet we want to delude ourselves otherwise and deny the good sense we have in our head and in our chest. Psalm 90:12 seems to lay it out pretty clearly: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” The thing we know in our hearts is what we ought to be listening to after all. Psalm 39:4 says “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” Life does move pretty fast. Beginning today I’m determined to take the time to stop and look around and do the things in and on my heart. Life is precious. Don’t miss it.
I realize we’ve all been urged from time to time to seize the day. I hope that this little discussion convinces you to not wait to do so. If you have a friend or family member that needs to hear this I hope you’ll share this with them.
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