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My dad felt like he was living on borrowed time.  His dad and his oldest brother died in their early 50s, so every day he made it past that I think he felt was a gift.

The reality is we’re all living on borrowed time. Gifted time. Each day we have to love, to give, to learn, to grow, to prepare, is a gift given to us by God.

So what are we doing with our gift? Shoving it in a corner? Kicking it around?

Or embracing it, valuing it, and using to its greatest potential?

I recently watched an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.  The one where Marie takes them all on a trip to Italy. Everybody is soaking in the beauty and joy of the experience, except Ray. He doesn’t get it and he complains throughout the entire trip, until near the very end.

He stopped complaining and started looking around. He noticed the beauty of the landscape, the culture, the people, and his perspective changed.

He fell in love with everybody and everything, hopped on a bike and did his level best to soak up and spread as much beauty and joy as he could before it was time to go.

And I thought about how sometimes that is our life, especially when our outlook has been skewed by pain and suffering. Our perspective is dirtied from the trials and we can go through life not getting it. I think far too many people do that, even Christians, and that’s a tragedy.

We who have been changed, who have been given new life and made into a new creation have the opportunity to have a new perspective.  Sometimes it takes some time, and always some forgiveness, for our hearts and perspectives to be cleansed and made whole so we can fully see the beauty that’s all around us.

But every day we wake up we can ask God to purify our hearts, give us His perspective and start living our lives in Him now so we don’t wait until the end of our trip to get it. To start soaking up and spreading the beauty, love, and joy that God surrounds us with every day.

Sometimes I think of myself in my last days, and wonder what I’ll think of. What will I wish I had done? Who do I wish I’d been?  If I keep living the way I am, will I be happy that I lived that way? Is there anything I wish I’d done differently? What do I hope people thought of me and say about me? Will I have made an impact for good? 

Will I have carried out God’s plan for my life? Will I have lived in service to Him, carrying out the greatest command to love Him with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength? And will I have loved my neighbor as myself?

None of us is promised tomorrow. But we do have today.

And every day we have a choice.

The world is more than happy to sweep us up with it in its hurried, materialistic, unforgiving, angry, joyless way. That way is easy. Just stand there and it will take you with it.

Or, we can choose to take the narrow road – the one Christ walks. Few take it because He’s on it and instead of doing our thing, being our own god, we must follow Him, and to some that seems restrictive.

And in a way it is, cause here’s the kicker: Jesus said to walk that road we must carry a cross. He said each person must

“deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
           For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
                    but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

And He goes on to elaborate:

“What good will it be for someone to
           gain the whole world,                 
                     yet forfeit their soul?”

Why do we have to deny ourselves? Because in our flesh dwells no good thing. Only in dying to our flesh and letting Christ live His life through us is there true life and freedom. 

That narrow road of cross-carrying and self-denying opens to freedom from sin and its regrets, from shame and guilt, to fullness of joy and love and purpose.

That narrow road is where life is.

And we never walk it alone. The resurrection power of the Holy Spirit is with us, upon us, and dwells within us to forgive, cleanse, and lead us on in our walk, no matter where it goes. And ultimately, of course, it leads to eternity, where we won’t be judged for our sins (as long as we’ve believed in Christ as Lord), but we will be rewarded according to what we have done. 

“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

“I’m telling you it goes by fast. If you don’t give it your all you’re going to regret it.”  
~Kobe Bryant

If you want to know how to get on that road of following Christ, or have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me by clicking on the post card to the right.