As I sat drinking a cup of coffee this morning and watching
the sun come up, a thought and question popped into my mind. It kind of went
like this; “Here I am quickly approaching my 7th decade of walking
this earth and I wonder just how many days, hours, minutes and seconds that
added up to.” And, “have I really been using that time the best way I could be
using it?”
70 Years! That adds up to 25,550 days, 613,200 hours, 36,792,000 minutes or 2,207,520,000 seconds. The bigger
and more important question is “What has a person done with that time?” For
most of us, the process of living is occupied with some rather mundane
activities. We do things day after day, week after week and really don’t give
much thought to them. Things like, for most men, we stand in front of that
mirror and knock off the whiskers we see staring back at us. There are lots of
other things we do that in reality don’t really add any value to our day. Women
have their own things that occupy portions of their day that fall into the same
category.
A portion of our average day is taken up with one kind of
work, chore, or other task we have to do. Things tasks add a certain degree of
value to our day. That value is most often related to just being able to
survive in our world today. Some of these things we do we like to do and obtain
some enjoyment out of doing them. Others are simply, let’s say, we do because
we need to do them.
If we are lucky, or maybe by design by our Lord, we have the
opportunity to reach out and touch the lives of someone and be of help to them
in some way or another. The value we receive from these acts can never be
measured in dollar figures nor does it add any physical asset to what we have. These
acts however often turn out to be some of the most important things we ever do.
A few of us have been given the opportunity to have our
lives and even normal daily activities revolve around the quest of endeavor of
reaching out with the hop of being able to touch the lives of those the Lord
has placed before us. I believe completely that even though we aren’t able to
help everyone, just our trying has made some impact. Our goal is to “keep on
keeping on” in the hope or reaching more. What we receive from doing this can’t
be measured in the physical realm.
Why do we do it, you ask! The answer is this. We really have
no other choice. We have chosen to follow our Lord and His instructions. Once
that decision was made, we chose to give up our own “Will’s” for our lives so
that the Lord’s “Will” for our lives could lead and guide us. The understanding
and knowledge that where our will for our lives will always be imperfect and fact
that His “Will” for our lives is always perfect, makes the difference.
This doesn’t mean that every thing we do is going to be
either easy or pleasant. It does mean that if we keep our focus on Him, we know
we are on the right path and what ever is going on or what ever happens, His hands
are on it and involved with it. This brings a degree of internal joy and peace
to a person’s life. It also means that we don’t have to stress out over things
the Lord has given us to do. It’s His work and He will take care of the
details.
Many don’t understand this and live their lives really
missing out on so many things that would make their lives so much better.
