Have you ever mixed up your dates so badly that you arrived a day late for a meeting? I did today and yes I know it could only happen to me.It is supposed to be the 19th today and maybe it still is, somewhere on the planet, or maybe it still was when I headed off, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, for an important meeting - only to arrive at the security window and find that today ... is the 20th. Look I did what I could to correct them, but it was tough to persuade several hundred workers to reset their calendars, so I had to capitulate and realign my own system.
You would think, in this day and age, that we could all standardise, but alas it is just not to be. Yet, when it suits them, people still want us to adopt their standards. I had the same problem when I was in the army - my mom always noticed that I could keep the pace, whilst the rest of my battalion remained out of step. It reminds me of a time when she phoned my dad to tell him that some idiot was driving the wrong way down a highway, to which he aptly replied, "All the idiots on this highway are doing it".
I have actually been up against wrong-way drivers a few times. Once the oncoming car just sped past me. On another occasion I saw a vehicle going the same way as me, but in the oncoming lane. I accelarated to flash everyone ahead and warn them of the oncoming threat, but a collision happened anyway. That left me having to catch the madman, but I had to sit on him until the police arrived to make an arrest.
The problem I am really alluding to is a scary tendency for many to live as though yesterday is today. Its as though we have unconciously reset our calendars and watches: to preserve the good old days. I hate to break it to you, but the good old days are gone. Try as you may you cannot turn back the clock or retard the coming date of destiny that will bring a terrifying judgement on an indifferent world. It will come whether you notice it or not, but how much better for you if you prepare for that day.
How do you prepare? Kill debt, be reconciled to all, make your peace with those who have hurt you, let go of regrets, bury hatchets, settle accounts, pray every day and get back to church. Stop playing around. The hour is now far later than when we first believed.
My Dad is close to the end, but has many unsettled accounts. He would prefer to escape his nursing home, but I keep telling him "the quickest and surest way out is in a hearse". I am not trying to be maccabre. My Dad wants his last son to settle debts owed to him, even if that risks alienating his son forever. He has other unsettled business too. Thus, I made the point that the value of old age is that it affords us a time to reflect on our lives and put things right before it is too late, so that we can step over the threshold into eternity free of hangovers, regrets or debts. I suggest we all need to do that - now, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
(c) Peter Eleazar @ http://www.4u2live.net/
No comments:
Post a Comment