![]() And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts up and grows—how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. --Mark 4:26-28 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. —Psa. 90:12 Life has a rhythm, a lot like walking. The foot that’’s reaching ahead to where you want to go will soon be the same foot you withdraw from where you’’ve been. In the motion of walking – like the motion of living – we straddle both where we were and where we’re headed with each step. Where you are today is the result of steps you took yesterday. And tomorrow you will either regret or rejoice in the steps you take today... Living for the Moment…...
No one who lives solely in the moment ever lives a successful life. But like the painter’’s canvass, life is stretched between the past and future. The moment we that find ourselves in, never exists unto itself, but rather, it’’s a place we’’ve arrived at along a path we’’ve been traveling. The reason why significant and dramatic change is usually difficult to make is because people usually want to experience it instantly. But a true turn-around in life is more like navigating a large ocean liner, in which a wheel must be turned, and held until the rudder has affected a true redirection of our course. God can insert pivotal moments into our lives if we allow Him to. But then it takes faithful determination on our part to stay in the radius, endure the pressure of the turn, until we can straighten out the wheel, and move in a new direction. So instead of life unfolding in quick second-by-second movements, the increments of our life are more like a person throwing a ball, catching up to it, and throwing it again. We are always pursuing the place where our actions have led us. One of the great themes running through the Bible is the plant-and-reap rhythm of life. You sow today for tomorrow’’s harvest. God has designed life to flow along the course of this principle. All of nature is locked into its rhythm: While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” --Gen. 8:22 “ The wise individual understands that life is a walk across time. The person who only has vision for the moment and regrets over the past will never learn how to walk successfully with God, through life. To walk with God one must coordinate evaluating the past, discerning the present, and focusing for the future, with each step they take. For when tomorrow arrives you will have become what you’’ve prepared to be, through your actions today. Paul writes in Galatians about this inescapable law of life. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. --Gal. 6:7-8 It is impossible to be happy, living only for the moment, because the status of your happiness in this very moment was largely determined by your actions yesterday. Though we may mourn our sins and failures, the Lord is gracious to blot them out when we repent. But we live with the heartbreaks over lost opportunities to do good, which we can never go back and recapture. So one of the best things you can do with the “moment” you have, is to realize that there are moments to come, and invest yourself wisely towards them. Happiness is a cumulative experience. In part, we are made happy by our immediate circumstances and state of being. But in addition to that, our happiness is also contributed to by the thanksgiving of others, over things that we have done well, which have benefited them. The satisfaction this brings today is the result of unselfish sacrifices we made towards the good of others yesterday. Those sacrifices rarely bring joy in the moment they are made. In fact, they are often made at some expense to our own immediate happiness. But the deep joy that the thankfulness of others (who are benefited by our sacrifice) brings to us today, far outweighs any momentary happiness we may have sacrificed yesterday. And knowing the worth of this joy, and the awful weight of regrets over missed opportunities, let us wisely navigate the rhythm of life; sowing today for tomorrows harvest. Stay On The Path!
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