The Grass Withers

The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

It is important to make good investments. Every day we get to choose to invest in one thing or another. We invest our time, invest our money, invest our thoughts. We can build our own empires, or at least we can try. We can also invest our time somewhere else. It's odd to think that every material thing that we know on this planet will be wiped away. The decay and slide of our bodies into old age seems to happen just slow enough that we can remain blind to it. The ridiculousness of our work to our own glory only comes into view as we get a real perspective, an eternal perspective. I would like to do a better job of keeping my eyes on what stands forever.

It is funny to me the amount of time and energy I spend to become an expert at something that is only going to last for some of this lifetime. It seems that it is necessary to a certain degree. But how to do it in a way that really makes it an eternal investment? I believe that it is possible to do. Somehow while we make the earthly investments we are privileged to be able to make we can also be making an eternal investment to. I may have to go to work, but I get to choose whether I do so and realize that the Lord is shaping me and molding me; or I can choose to lose the ball in the weeds and dream about Friday afternoon.

But God gave me today! I'm looking for a deeper realization of the joy of every moment, the peace of resting in Christ every second, unbroken fellowship with Him. I feel like I see shadows of it, hints and whispers, but then I lose it to my own fleshliness. God is so good, He receives me back, dusts me off and lets me walk again. Everyday is another opportunity to have communion and fellowship with Him, every trial a chance to rely on Him, every moment could be filled with the true life that comes from knowing God through Christ, or it could be just another second.

When I was young I got really excited in getting ready to go anywhere. I think I would vomit before many family trips. I'm certain I didn't sleep a single Christmas eve until I was at least 18 years old. The next days events were just too exciting. How could you sleep with Christmas morning finally here? I want that back. Not about Christmas (though I expect I will because I seem to be regressing and experiencing everything again as my kids see them for the first time), but about the realization that the moment by moment walk with Jesus is more exciting than going to a theme park, more fulfilling than any number of gifts, and more real than any of my greatest expectations could be.