On the last Sunday of each month I lead our congregational prayer. Yesterday, a dear friend came up to me clipboard in hand and asked if I was doing prayer. I thought, I can do it, but I was wondering what had happened to the regularly scheduled person. Then my friend said, "It's the last Sunday of the month!" It couldn't be, it was only the middle of the month wasn't it? I guess the month just slid right by me.

Time has a nasty habit of doing that. I'm sure it was only a couple of years ago I was leaving high school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It wasn't all that long ago that I decided to propose to Kathy. It seems like only a few weeks ago that my eldest son was born and even less than that that my youngest was born.

Yet the reality is that I've been out of high school a long time, married 26 years and my boys are aged 21 and 15 (nearly 22 and 16). Where did it go?

I remember vividly the expression of "Never trust anyone over 30" from the sixties and seventies and thinking my parents were so old because they had turned thirty. I remember how long a period of time it seemed to me when my parents celebrated their twenty- fifth wedding anniversary. A whole quarter of a century, that must have been an eternity. Now suddenly I'm way over thirty and passed my 25th anniversary as well.

I was an adult when I attended my first funeral, now I've been to more than I can remember.

Where did it go? How did it happen so quickly?

Time slips away. The Word reminds us how quick time can slide away.

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: Psalm 39:4-6a NIV

For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall 1 Peter 1:24 NIV

The harsh reality of life is that I'm not eighteen any more. I've passed thirty and forty and the clock ticks slowly onward. I look and see a life that has been full of opportunities missed and good intentions left unfilled. There have been lots of good moments, so please don't think I'm sitting here this morning feeling sorry for myself.

Notes I meant to send, phone calls I planned to make, encouraging words I planned to share when "I saw them next time" have drifted into days, months, years, even decades. There were many good things I planned to do for people that have long ago slipped into the category of the distant past undone.

My to do list never ends. My should have done list only grows.

Maybe it's time to spend an hour or two less in front of the television, or worrying about whether the house is completely spotless, or doing that extra shift for a few bucks more. Maybe it's time to spend some time doing the things that really count. Perhaps today is the day to quit putting it off until tomorrow.

Until next time, encourage someone, lend a helping hand, tell someone you love him or her, and share the love of Jesus with a friend (or even a stranger). Make a call or write a letter and tell someone that all is forgiven or that you're sorry. Don't put if off any longer.

Be blessed

Hallelu Yah (Praise God)!

Kevin

http://gleaningsfromtheword.com/

Once you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have eternal life.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
John 3:36 NIV

If you haven't made the decision to accept Christ as Lord