Already????????

A new month already????????????

You're kidding me, right! Less than eleven more months like these and we'll be celebrating Christmas again! Count the days (in a mere month), there aren't that many!

Oh my goodness, it'll be here again in a minute!

In ten more (months), we'll be taking the decorations back down from their shelves, the closets or attics and decking our newly erected trees and the halls with lights and all their adornments. We'll be rushing around finding just the right presents and wrapping with paper the gifts we've hidden in boxes. We'll be cooking the turkey and all the fixins to go with it and working hard to make our tables look pretty. No wonder it's surprising when Christmas comes. Though it seems that it should be, there's not much time at all in-between them!

Several go arounds of Christmas years..... and we'll be gone. IT'S NOT LONG!!! Are we wasting the time we've been given?

Do we waste it in mad and mean, fury at our brother, hate toward another? Looking back with regret, shrouded in shame, riddled with bitterness or racked with refusal of forgiveness? Do we live our minutes in vain with no concern over the minutes we've lost , not realizing that those minutes are adding up quickly to hours and weeks and days and years... and soon decades are gone!

Life is but a vapor.... might we want to live like it is so that we won't hate how we've lived it after it's over.

I was riding with my oldest daughter the other day, thinking. I told her if someone asked us to draw our lives out in a timeline, wonder how long people would draw theirs to be... having no idea really, and no guarantee, that they'll live the long life that they're visualizing. But... even if they did, the longest line isn't really that long.

And then.

If we all took the lines that we've drawn, and then were told to, "Mark out how much time (or how many years?) on this line that you're planning on wasting." How much time do you think most would mark? Yet, when seeing it that way, maybe we'll want to waste less and we won't waste so much?

So many people live so much of their lives  in vain. Accomplishing nothing. Focusing mostly on frivolous. Partying hard but going home pitifully unsatisfied. Drinking years away drizzling them away in a drunken stupor. Living under the influence of this or of that, intoxicated with toxins that rob them of life. Waking up old, before they know it. And what have they now got to show from it?

James 4:13 reminded us of this before I did. He said, "Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money. Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air]."

What do you do with the vapor you've been given?

Here is a poem that a precious lady from church wrote that was played at our yesterday's service. Beautiful! You'll see that when you watch it. May it impact you as much as it did me when I did.

Destinations: Barbara Bice from Landmark Church on Vimeo.


Destinations
By: Barbara Bice

I woke up today and I was old
And I thought about the seeds I'd sowed
And I wondered if along the way
If I'd share His hope and His amazing grace?

I woke up today and I was old
And I thought about the words untold
Like, "I love you," "forgive me,"
And "I'm sorry."

I woke up today and I was old
And I thought about how life unfolds
And how time just slips away
And how a year seems like a day.

I woke up today and I was old
And I wondered what the future holds
For in a heartbeat life can change
Oh, thank You, God, that You're in control.

I woke up today and I was old
And I journaled in my book of prayer
And in those pages I could see
All the times that God was there for me.

I woke up today and I was old
And I looked at my hand, at the ring of gold
And I thanked Him for all the years with you
A man of God whose light shines through.

I woke up today and I was old
Did I do God's will as I was told
Was I faithful? Was I kind? Did I share?
Had I entertained angels unaware?

I woke up today and I was old
And though I had no fame or gold
I was truly blessed just the same
But did I give a cup of cool water in Jesus' name?

I woke up today and I was old
And so grateful for His mercy shown
Yet looking back I had to ask
"Was it ever I that cast the first stone?"

I woke up today and I was old
And I wondered when God looked at me
Did He see someone He'd hoped I'd be
Did I do all the things that He said to do
Then I heard Him whisper, "It's not about you."

I woke up today and I was old
And I thought about the stories told
Of how His Son died for me
While still a sinner on the cross at Calvary

I woke up today and I was old
And so thankful that He bore my load
For in Jesus Christ, I believe...
Yes, it's all about Him
and His forgiveness of me.

One day I'll awake and not be old
And I'll walk upon the streets of gold
I'll meet my Savior face to face
And I'll thank Him for His amazing grace.