Life Spanning

There was once a time of innocence, when every second revolved around the most trivial, but mainly bracketed to the oneness of me.  Where familial was a house lived in and carried like an invisible cloak.

Where love flourished but taken for granted, and appearances wafted about in the periphery...there for the sharing or not.

Where personality developed, awareness took roots, and life ran through hoops, sharp turns and hilly terrain.

That terrain ran with lessons hard learned, bad decisions mingling with the good, and the race tiring.  Life is hard.

Looking is not always seeing.  Hearing is not always understanding.

Believing often leads not to committing.

Time that had once seemed interminable now speeds along as one chasing the wind...with reflections and wonders of the loss of it.

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. 

~ Proverbs 19:20

But maturity and wisdom begin to reign and take its rightful place in life, for the Creator forgets not His own and restores what is broken.

I've filled my days with details

And all the choices of the earth

Carried the yoke of worry

And all the burdens that it brings

So through the midst of all the rushing

You whisper to our hearts

And with Your sweet voice

You say to us

  To be still and know You are God  To be still and know You are God  Just to rest in Your arms

So give me peace and wisdom

To know how to fill my time

Where I can learn to keep You

At the centre of my life

So through the midst of all the rushing

There is time to spend with You

And my foundation

Will daily be

Written by: David Gate

Every Single One

The world's population is now over seven billion people.  Living in a rural setting, that number is alien to me, unfathomable.  Surely the earth cannot hold us all, as huge as it is.  Put yourself in the middle of seven billion people...how can you be distinguished from the masses, the broiling, teeming swirl of humanity that is constantly moving and growing?   How can you matter?

in·fin·i·tes·i·mal:  An immeasurably or incalculably minute amount or quantity.

There are 10 times more stars in the night sky than grains of sand in the world's deserts and beaches, according to scientists.  Astronomers estimated there are 70 thousand million million million - or seven followed by 22 zeros - stars visible from the Earth through telescopes.

Sort of makes the world's population seem small, doesn't it?

But doesn't it also start to put some things into perspective?

We think we have put God into a certain place.  Our mind pictures a throne of majesty and grandeur, yes.  Somewhere between earth and heaven, wherever that is.  We picture our galaxy, and then the mind wavers and recedes.  The vastness of outer space is mind boggling and fearful.  We try to accept the unimaginable distances and time and unknown and our hearts begin to pound.   Who is this God who can create and manage such wonders?  And who am I that He would create and plan a life for...me, this infinitesimal dot on the universes?



If I have not expressed jubilent thanks to my Lord for my life and the hope He gives me...every moment of my waking...then I am remiss, uncaring and traitorous.  For my God, who is the Creator of all things, is faithful and one day will tell me...this infinitesimal dot...the secrets of His creations and I will know and enjoy the wonderful things he has planned for me in heaven.  I love you, Lord, and I will not miss out on your promises!

Time Spent Well

It was beautifully penciled and colored, giving a very cool picture of what could be.  Visions of a well designed, colorful landscape was enticing...equal to the promise of spring on a bright, sunny day.  It would be enjoyable, pleasing to the eye, an example of what can be surveyed in God's creations.  It would also be expensive.  Biting the bullet, I signed my name.

Euphoria was short lived.  By nightfall, doubts were taking over and the urge to call and cancel was deep.  Could we afford it?  Could the money be better spend elsewhere?  Was it a smart decision?  How long would we enjoy it?  How long...?  There it was, the underlying crux I was battling without knowing. 

Seasons change and the years speed up that process, I'm sure of it.  Life takes on a cruising speed of its own, and you find yourself amazed when looking back...amazed and sometimes disappointed.  Joseph Cook, editor and writer, once summarized man's earthly life this way: "Man's life means tender teens, teachable twenties, tireless thirties, fiery forties, forceful fifties, serious sixties, sacred seventies, aching eighties, shortening breath, dead, the sod, then God."

As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. - Psalm 103:15

Statistically, 15 to 22 remaining years is projected for me, baring any life ending diseases.  My head is still reeling!   So, too, is my husband's because I felt the need to inform him of this...his more because he is astounded I would even look this up!    My astonishment is more tuned into the age old questions of "Where did the time go?" and "What do I have to show for my life?" and "What do I need to hurry up and get accomplished before my memory is mush?" and more importantly, "Have I lived my life for Christ or myself?"

Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom of God, and also “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  (Matthew 6:34).  Bottom line, the present time is the perfect time, the only time, to follow and serve God.

Missed opportunities cannot be recreated and time gone by is not retrievable.  We cannot worry about what we have done with our lives, because today, this moment, begins anew.  However many moments are left are full of promise, and all we have to do is seek Him.

So, no more worries about something as trivial as landscaping.   I have better things to do with my time.

Time Changes

Time as a noun is defined as the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues...i.e., duration.  As in, non-sleep.  Which is where I am at present.  After a particularly busy day, certainly tired enough to drop off into oblivion, how can time stand still with eyes glued to the ceiling?  How does the brain miss the timely signs of nightly rest when the remainder of this body knows full well the needed comfort of bed and sleep?

Instead, knowledge of a friend facing cancer surgery fills the mind and urgent prayers are lifted on his behalf...which brings to mind others facing surgery or treatment...more prayers offered.  The domino effect is raging now, and the mind races with urgent needs of friends, family, and friends of friends. 

So up out of the bed I go to precious time in the middle of the night, with only the ticking of a clock to match the clicking of the keyboard, to match the beating of a heart filled with love and hope for lives physically suffering and others grieving for lost loved ones.

Time stops for no one...except the Lord.  Joshua 10:13:
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

So the dying continues, diseases ravage bodies, hearts and promises are broken.  But then births continue also, allowing laughter and joy to ring through our days, as love and hope tower above all else.  How comforting to know that what we experience, what we fear, what loss we bear has been foretold in words we can understand...

Ecclesiates 3:

     1 For there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

     2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time
        to pluck up what is planted;
     3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
     4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
     5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
        a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
     6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
     7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
     8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

We have been given time on earth and not all that time is pleasant.  Our God knew of life trials we would face and has numbered our days.  I choose this new day to remember our Creator, to live my life fully with meaning and purpose.  I choose to value my time with heart-felt prayer and thankfulness.  I choose time with God.