Which Way Are You Looking?

Which way are you looking? If I was to ask this when you are driving, I would hope that you were looking ahead. That is unless you were backing up. But then you wouldn’t be reading this and you shouldn’t be reading this when you are driving forward either.
In our minds we always look at things that have happened. Part of that learned lesson’s thing. Our memory transports us back to what we saw and experienced. Those involved with the fall fair are now looking back and forward. What a great weekend and the weather turned out better then expected. So we look back. Most would say that when you finish yearly activity you look back so you can analyze and evaluate how things went and look forward with the changes that will make it better next year.
When looking applies to our personal life, we have a propensity to also look at what was and what is to come. If we separate the two, things change. Some miss all of what was and never desires to look for what is coming. There are people out there, (and this is not you) who only look back. They are living the good old days. We need to let them know that sometime in the future, we will be calling today, ‘the good old days’. Then there are people who are afraid of what is coming. A subject I have written on before, a fear of the unknown. As a boy I learned about past, present and future real fast. I would do something wrong and hide the evidence. That was the past. I would hear my mom say, “Wait until your father gets home.” That was the present. Funny how this was the only time she called him “father.” Then I knew what the future held. At that future moment I would cry, “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” After that future I would try to remember the past so the future does not repeat itself.
Someone once said, today is all we have and it is a gift and that is why it is call a ‘present’. I personally disagree. It is wonderful to have all the memories in our minds that are both good and bad. Good ones make us smile and bad ones remind us of how much we learned and grew from the experience. When we are fully aware of what is happening in our lives and living life to the fullest we live our today’s. But we stretch ourselves looking beyond our today with expectancy. We know the future has so many opportunities we just have to reach out to touch them. Now that is a real gift.
I will give you a glimpse of what goes through a pastor’s mind on a Monday morning. I try to remember what happened in and around the lives of the people who were at church. I remember the service and that experience. Whom did we pray for? What stood out during the morning while people visited and talked. We even analyze our service and sermons. (It makes it easier when you record the sermon.) At this point we look ahead, with all the information gathered to the next Sunday. That is where the work starts.
For those reading this, looking also involves our spiritual journey. Most of us can look back to when we didn’t know Jesus. We had no faith, no grace no God. We didn’t know him personally. It was a time when we did what we wanted and sin took hold of us. My definition of sin is something that we do that hurts God, someone else or ourselves. That was the past we want to remember but not relive. When we met Jesus, we recognized our sin and in true humility and sorrow asked God to forgive us the past. And just like that little boy of the past, we said, “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” Now we walk with God. What a wonderful ‘present’! It is in the NOW that we have an amazing relationship with the one who not only created all things but He created us. Not only do we walk with God but we have Christ in our heart, who walks with me and talks with me and helps me step aside from sin. Where His Spirit lives in me each moment of every day. What excitement to know, tomorrow is in His hands and it is going to better then today.
Then comes the ultimate, when we experience that great gettin’ up morning. When we wake to an eternity that Jesus has gone ahead to prepare for us. Look around your life and notice if these are the things you see. Ask yourself, which way am I looking?
Rob

Take Time To Be Holy

Making use of spare time is sometimes mind boggling. After all, there are so many things that could be done. So many projects that should get done and so many things that may never get finished. At times in the relaxed nature of this past summer I have found myself wondering what to do with myself. It’s quiet around here most of the time. This doesn’t mean we have given up our regular routines. It only means our lives are changing again. We look at things differently and we place importance on other things.
The different stages of life bring challenges in regards to time. I watch the teens who sleep until noon suddenly come alive when the sun goes down. When school starts, they have to reprogram their minds and bodies to respond to a different set of rules and expectations. Recently I noticed a young mother dealing with the sleeping habits of a toddler. She can’t wait until the child sleep, “like any normal person.” Been there, done that and don’t want to do it again.
Stretching my own memory takes me back to the time when time was something we manipulated. We made it fit our schedule or we made our schedule control our time. Night shifts are not fun. There were calls to be somewhere right now. Forget what you are doing and come. Forget about 8hrs sleep, just do it. This also meant we endeavoured to make things happen or make it work. Some even thrived on it.
There were and are times when we have to make the most of the time we have. It was August 1980. A local Saskatchewan farmer who attended the church needed some help. Previously I had given him a hand with this or that. But for this city folk, the jobs were trivial and didn’t take much time. That was until he asked for my help with the harvest. Ten minutes instruction on a Massey 24 and I was combining. It meant I had to be up and at the farm by seven. By 10:00 a.m. we were on the field. He trucked the grain to the bins in the yard and I kept going. Load after load, hour after hour. Soon it was 1:00 a.m. and we had to stop because the grain was getting tough. Get some sleep because seven a.m. comes mighty early.
Those days, for many of us are gone. We have spare time now. Time has a different meaning to each of us. We still make time for family and friends. There is time to give a weak hand to someone else and there is time to sit and just spend time with yourself.
I found this rare pleasure of late. Maybe it was the summer or maybe it’s my age. On numerous occasions I have found myself sitting and doing nothing. The spare time jobs seemed unimportant. What was important was sitting with my thoughts and enjoying the experience.
Life has shown there is something more in sitting on the deck watching the migrating monarch butterflies. Spare time has something beyond relaxing on the front porch watching the world go by. In those moments, my mind, like yours, goes back to situations, circumstances, people, places. There are the laughing moments, exciting times and some memories we play back only to realize how far we have come.
Mornings come early for me now. Often the numbers on the clock are short of five. In those moments I have the wonderful opportunity to talk with God. For some reason, He wakes me before the sun comes up or the appointments of the day start dictating my time. Lying there in the quietness that only the morning brings, we talk. Uncluttered time with Him. I thank Him for coming in and waking me. I thank Him for caring for all of us. I ask Him what it must have been like when it was just Him and Adam in the garden. We talk about you and how He can give you a hand today. In those moments I have discovered spare moments with Him are amazing. Just like Him. Have you had your moment alone with God today?
Rob