This “Enjoy by” was on a box of donuts sitting on the table
in a nurses break room at the hospital this morning. It caused me to think
about all the things we wait to enjoy or forget to enjoy or just don’t enjoy.
Well, we could just eat the whole box right now and get it over with. That’s
just 2,000 empty or saturated fat calories, no problem, right? We could just
say no and let someone else enjoy them or not have anyone eat them. Like an old Karl Reiner routine, you could
just lacquer them up and frame them for a wall decoration. Are you enjoying
life? Do you have a “bucket list,” or is that just for other people? You know
we don’t know if we have tomorrow.
James says, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to
this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what
will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little
while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will
live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such
boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t
do it, it is sin for them” (James 4:13-17). Wow!
Now there is a tough thought, we are a mist or a vapor, gone in an instant. We
can’t count on today or tomorrow. It is not about you and your plans. I just
watched a movie about a woman who planned everything out so she would not be
surprised. I did say it was a movie, right? You see, life just happens and we
are not in control of it. We never were and we never will be in control of it.
I know that
some think that they are captain of their ship, good luck with that. You are
going down. “Not even God could sink this ship,” was perhaps my favorite quote
from the Titanic builders. It’s even worse than the pompous captain of a
battleship steaming full-speed ahead and commanding an obstacle in his way to
move that just happened to be a lighthouse.
Live
your life today. You do not necessarily have tomorrow. I wrote this on my own
brothers “auspicious” birthday. He has been fatalistically thinking that he
would not outlive our father. I am not sure from where his superstitions
grew. Black cats and four leaf clovers
are about bad luck or good luck. There
is not such a thing. “Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like
shifting shadows” (James 1:17). Life is ordained by God. He has also given us free will or choice. He
has said, “Choose life.” In this choosing I also choose “joy.”
I want
to live each day to the fullest, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as
unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are
evil” (Ephesians
5:15-16). Wisdom comes from God; there is no other source. There is knowledge
and education, but wisdom comes from living for and in the truth of God. God in
Christ Jesus told His disciples when He was ascending to heaven to “Go
and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). This is saying, “But
in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks
you to give the reason for the hope
that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
This is our purpose as Christians, to go and tell the “Good News.” Not everyone
is an evangelist, but everyone is to share the Word. “Let your conversation be always
full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians
4:6). So as you go through life, live it
with “gusto” and full of joy and God’s grace.
I don’t
know what God has for you. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians
2:10). These works are uniquely designed for each of us. God has gifted each of
us with talents and skills and spiritual gifts for the edification or benefit
of the church. That’s why we live.
I am
teaching at a large men’s conference on the subject of retirement. What does God
have to say about it? God talks of work some 700 times, but only once of retirement
and of that- No! What might you say? I am so looking forward to retire and do
nothing? Well, that’s not the life God has for us. He wants us to keep going in
His power to do the works that He has already prepared for us. This does not
mean for pay or with the same or any employer other than God.
So get
to it. Enjoy by- today. Get going and be joyful in all things including trials
as James tells us. God is developing us to maturity with perseverance so that
we can keep working for Him. He is no slave driver. If we are doing His will
with the gifts He has given us, our calling, we will enjoy it. By the way, we
will have jobs in heaven if we make it.
Nehemiah
said, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). Yes as 2
Corinthians 12:9 tells us, “His power is being made perfect in our
weakness.” In other words, just
keep going like the “energizer bunny,” as God is our battery. God’s servant
Caleb kept working after 85 to take the lands from the enemies.
So what
do you enjoy? There is a good chance that if it is in God’s will that that is
what He wants you to do and enjoy. And if it is enjoyable then do it now to the
glory of God. Our expiration date is not known or predictable by any doctor or
sage, only God the Father in heaven. So make it a good day and enjoy it now.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.