Vapor

Today, my heart burned for communion with God. Literally, I felt this longing and aching inside of me to spend time with the Lord. Over the next couple hours I felt painfully aware of how short our life is on this earth. A vapor. A breath. Like the flowers of the field. We are here today, gone tomorrow. It's like a minute, a moment, a chance. I'm not promised tomorrow and who knows when the day will be when I meet my Maker. It's a sobering thought, but one that I don't think enough. "The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers." 1 Peter 4:7. Keeping your sights set on the end, not in a dismal depressing way, but in a victorious sojourner way, calls for a sober-mindedness and self-control. Everything around us calls our attention on only what you can see and touch and understand. The common worldview is summed up in focusing on yourself and your pursuit of happiness. Here! Now! Success! Riches! Popularity! Indulgence! But we are called to be pilgrims, strangers, sojourners, aliens. We are passing through. This is not where we belong and we all know that to be true deep on the inside. When this is my understanding and my frame of reference for this life, I seem extreme to the people around me. I seem odd and like I don't fit in. I must practice Ephesians 5:15-16 - "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." I desperately need to buy back the seconds, the minutes, the hours, and the days I wasted on worthless things. To live wisely, to walk circumspectly (vigilant, guarded, watchful, prudent). Being aware of the consequences of my every decision, my every step. What is my vision for this life then? To love God with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my mind, and with all of my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is my success, accomplishing those two things. This is my ten year plan, this is my career, this is how I 'waste' my time, this is my divine calling. I was made for it and I am most alive when these are a reality in my life. Jon Thurlow was singing this on the webstream and it seemed to fit perfectly with what I was thinking and feeling.

I want to be tender

I want to be sensitive to You

To all that you are Jesus, and all that You do

So let Your glory have a higher place in my heart

Let Your beauty have a higher place in my heart

Let Your majesty have a higher place in my heart, oh Jesus!!

Because I don't want You to be a familiar stranger to me

Lord I want the fullness of knowing You in intimacy

I've got a moment to decide

I've got less than a minute to move You with one glance of my eye

Life is a vapor fading fast and in less than a moment it will pass

and it will be remembered like a dream in the night

We will remember love! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter remembering and celebrating the victory Jesus has accomplished over sin and death! Yes!! Jesus is risen. He has done it! I am made free! We have been redeemed!