The Paradox That is Time

Wow, can you believe it’s already been another year?  It seems like the older I get, the quicker the years go by.  I still remember what a teacher told my class our senior year, “Welcome to the last first day of the quickest year of your life.”  At the time, we thought she was crazy but in what seemed like a blink of an eye, school was over and I still hear her profound statement resonate in my mind over 10 years later.   Where does the time really go?

But don’t we wish our life away?   We wish Mondays were Fridays, Tuesdays were Fridays, so on and so forth.  We wish Fridays were Saturdays and then once Sunday has departed, the cycle begins all over again.  Young adults wish they were older and old men and women dream of being young.  We hope for the clock to stand still when we are running late but urge it to quicken when we are bored with our many attention-stealing toys.   We talk of killing time when in fact time is what is killing us.   Grandpa’s and grandma’s rock time away on their porch while teens rock time away at concerts.  Are we never satisified just being exactly where we are at?

Time is relative.  Touch a hot coal, a second lasts a lifetime but wrap your arms around the man/woman of your dreams, that lifetime is but a second.   It was once said, “How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you’re on.”   I totally agree.  The relativity of time is conditional on our awareness of the clock.  However, the pendulum will always swing constant and true.

Time does not discriminate.  Three things are certain while you are on this earth:  Life, death and the tick of the clock.  We think we have life down and are quick to try to avoid death but one thing is inevitable, “time waits for no man.”  Black, white, tan, green or purple, time will not wait for you to be satisfied.  It is always moving, so should you.  Time doesn’t slow down for the old and speed up for the young although our perception of time changes.  As we get older, our time travels with us and we become aware of how precious the hands of the clock really are.  The young are invincible and have yet to understand that their hourglass is somewhat distorted.

Time is a corrector, a healer, a consorter of evil and good.  It is both the reality that life is fragile and the hallucination that life will never end.  It will always correct our mistakes and mend our griefs.  “Time heals all wounds” is a correct statement in that justice will always be served in time.  Does time begin when one is born and end in death?  No.  Time is eternally sound yet substantially fracturable.  Just ask someone who has lost a loved one prematurely.

We are dawning on a new day, a new year and dare I say a new time.  A time where we cherish the minutes that go by instead of wishing the day away.  A time where we are aware of our surroundings and appreciate our loved ones for who they are not for who they should become.  A time of embracing the clock and not fearing it.  A time of being active and present today, not revisiting yesterday or longing for tomorrow.

In 2013, embrace time.  Cherish it.  Love it.  In doing so, you will see that it’s true, time waits for no man but time must always bow it’s knee to the Creator of the universe.  It will hault for the Timekeeper.  It will hush at His command.  So I encourage you to remember that time is truly a gift from your heavenly Father.  Spend your time in such a way that you have no regrets if there is no tomorrow.   Spend it as He has created you to:  To the fullest!

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). John 10:10 (AMP)

#sharingmypeace

Flatlined…

Following the horrific events that happened in Connecticut, I have been just heartbroken over the loss of such young lives.  I am, for lack of better words, speechless over the events that have unfolded.  I work at a facility that manages the care of children just a year or so younger than those who were killed.  This morning I greeted each of them.  We smiled and waved at each other.   As their young eyes pierced my soul, all I could think about was those babies dying needlessly.   And then my mind wanders to my own child.  He is just 16 months old.  It will be a little while before he enters the school system and if things are this bad now, what will they be like in 3 years?

It seems like just seconds after the tragedy, people began pointing fingers at each other.  “It’s your fault”…  We, as a society, blame everyone else on our problems.  We have debt, well it’s China’s fault.  Crime is up.  It’s the drug cartel’s fault.   Impoverished families are at an all time high and according to most, it’s their own fault.   Why are we so quick to point fingers when we need to begin to focus on the real problem… A heart problem.

I believe that America has had arrhythmias quite a long time.   For those of you who do not know, a heart arrhythmia is an abnormal beat of the heart and causes dizziness, syncope (passing out), shortness of breath and chest discomfort.   I believe our country has had those symptoms in the past… all of which lead up to where we are today.  It seems that we are confused about where our values lie and in our confusion become dizzy.  The dizziness causes our vision to become blurry and we often have syncopal episodes to the issues at hand.  To put it more plainly, we “pass out” and turn a deaf ear to what matters the most in this world.  And the result of inward symptoms are shortness of breath and chest discomfort.  I think about those moms and dads who had to wake up on Saturday without their little girl or little boy.  I try to put myself in their shoes and know without a doubt that the muscle beating within their chest aches beyond belief.  Some of them are most definately having difficulty breathing in the life that their little ones never will.

So where does this leave America…  Playing the blame game.  We blame mental health.  We blame gun control laws.  We blame gun safety.  We blame parents.  We blame politicians.  We blame both the dead and the living.  We even blame God…  But do we blame our heart?

I have heard about preachers saying that this is the judgement of God coming down upon us.  That this tragedy is  somehow God’s vengance upon a sinful world.  I have to disagree as I believe that America is just flatlining – crumbling from within.  Any structure that has a crack in the foundation is doomed for disaster.  Through the pressures and weather of life, that crack gets bigger and bigger until the foundation becomes non-existent.  America’s foundation is being chipped away every second that we ignore God’s truth and one day, there will be no foundation left…  It scares me to think about the extreme state America will be left in after that happens.

So you say, “Shannon, I thought this was supposed to give a little light in a dark world…”   Yes, it is.

The good thing about a flatline is the quickened reaction of the educated few.  Emotions of hopelessness and hope coincide as adrenaline begins to pump through the veins of those in the room.   As a code is called over the intercom, both physicians and nurses work together for one common goal….a heart beat.  They take their training to a new height as nothing else at the moment matters but that one life, on their table and they will stop at nothing to bring life into a lifeless body.   As the “all-clear” statement sounds, what follows is nothing short of amazing.  If there is any life left, it responds.

Now I must parallel that with our world.  We ARE the educated few because we know the truth.  We know what is right and wrong because we know what His Word says.  He trained us to give hope and to be the light that this world so desperately needs.  America is flatlining.  We have the tools that are needed to bring life into what we consider to be a hopeless situation. It is time for us to come together with one goal, revive this great land.   Nothing else should matter….  And how do we do that?  Repair the broken foundation.

#Sharing my peace

Dying To Live

God, I surrender all of me to Your will.   My mind, soul, spirit and body is Yours Lord.  It has become apparent that my flesh must die before You can truly be Lord of my life so I lay down my wants, my needs, my desires and say YES to Your will.

Reach down into the recesses of my mind and pull out that which is not like You.  Yeah, that vile thought, I give it to You.  My attitude towards that person?  Yes, it’s now Yours.  My plans of the future? Yours as well.   Even those things which I don’t really want to give You… Take it Lord.  Hurry before I change my mind for I must die before I can truly live!

Kill that which is unlike You in my life Lord.  Destroy the works of the devil.  Cut the ties that are unhealthy for me.  Demolish the enemy’s strongholds in my life for I desire life and not death!  That sin I love… obliterate, overthrow and overturn it in my life.  Keep me Lord while I am behind enemy lines for I must die before I can truly live!

Change my heart Lord.  Wait, don’t change it… Transform it.  Make it unrecognizable so that no one can get the glory but You.  Sync my heart to Your heavenly beat.  Allow my blood to flow with Yours with such precision that they are impossible to separate.  In essence Lord, take me out so that You may enter in for I must die before I can truly live!

I want…  I want…  I want…  Yes, I want much but steal my wants from me.  Take them while I am destracted by Your desires for I fear I cannot give them to You otherwise.   I give You permission to rob my life of the things I crave.  Come as a thief in the night and abduct my ambitions, aspirations and yearnings.   I give myself away…to Your will…to Your way for I must die before I can truly live!

As a living sacrifice I lay down upon Your altar of death so that I might live the life You have for me.  Be quick Lord as living sacrifices still try to crawl off the wooden grave.   Chip away my sin, my will, my wants.   Pierce my heart with Your cleansing fire for You marked me before I was formed in my mother’s womb to be different – to be about Your business.

You have spoken to me about mercy and grace.  You have clothed me in your righteousness and set my foot on the solid rock.  But Lord, you require more than just robed garmets.  You require bloodshed.  You require sacrifice.  Mercy and grace come only at the hand of blood.  So I lay me down for I must die before I can truly live!

I raise my white flag… I surrender ALL to You!