Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Life Stuck In Fast Forward Mode

I don't watch a lot of television but every once in awhile I find a program that I'm interested in and will watch it through to the end. Yesterday, I not only found a program but an entire 10 episode marathon of that particular show. Since it was Monday, our down day, I watched most of the episodes. I was able to condensed what would have normally taken me ten weeks to watch, into one afternoon and evening. I was watching the program in fast forward mode. 

Sometimes I feel like my life is in fast forward mode and stuck there. Everything seems to be happening at once and there is still so much to be done. I woke up this morning at 3:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. Why? You might ask. Well, I remembered that I needed to pick up pepper the next time I went to the store. I realized then that I have too many things on my mind if something as simple as pepper would keep me awake. Instead of getting up and writing myself a note, so I could go back to sleep, I just laid there trying to put it out of my mind. That didn't work.

From the subject of pepper, my mind went to Matthew and Gabe, my son and his fiancee, who had gone apartment hunting yesterday. My mind was busy thinking of all the things they have to get done before their October wedding and that led to the wedding itself crowding my brain and then I was off on another tangent. Sleep was impossible. My mind was like a ping pong ball gone mad. 

I'm sure there were times when Jesus must have felt like He had so much to accomplish in a short period of time, after all He only had a little over three years of ministry time. There were always people to help and people wanting to see Him. When His friend Lazarus died, He was late in coming to the aid of his sisters. He was busy and couldn't be in two places at one time, like He can now. He was limited by a human body just as we are. 

Jesus even told His disciples that He had more to tell them, He had more to say but they weren't ready to hear it. (John 16:12) Why? Was it because what He had to say would require more teaching or explanation that He just didn't have time to give? I don't know but I do know that even Jesus was restricted by time here on this earth. 

The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us in chapter 3 verse 1 that "there is a time for everything and a season for every activity on earth." Time is precious and it is fleeting. It can be there at one moment and gone the next. Time can seem to drag but at other times you wonder how you will ever keep up. 

At this point in my life time is going in fast forward. We're preparing to send our daughter off to university in another province and a month later our second son will be married and in seven months after that our oldest son will be married. There's a lot happening and that's not saying a bit about all the things we have planned for church activities.

 But there are only so many hours in a day and days in a week, no more or no less. So its so important to make the most of our time. Ephesians 5:16 tells us just that: to make the most of our time. So don't sweat the small stuff, like pepper. Make the most of your time whether it is dragging along or stuck in fast forward motion. None of us knows how much time we are allotted so make the most of it. (Hebrews 9:27)

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