Soooo....I know, I know....its been a while. Ive been busy.. Give me a break already! Is it weird that I have conversations with myself? Maybe. You know what else is weird...? The word "weird." I spell it wrong EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. and then that little evil red dotted line pops up under it and basically reminds me that my 5th grade teacher should have never passed me on to middle school but I was too much of a prick to keep around for another year...yeah..its been one of those days. Oh and if you were wondering about my spelling of weird, I always put the "i" in front of the"e"...I think there is a song someone made about that...but I didn't pay attention in those early years..clearly.
Last night I might have found the biggest spider EVER. It might have been making a web. I might have seen a moth on the ground, and I might have picked it up and I might have thrown it into the web and I might have stood there and watched Mr. Spider wrap that thing up in a sweet web ball to save and eat for later. I might have done all of that last night. It MIGHT have been really cool.. ok, clearly this is going to be really hard for me to stay on topic today so I will keep it short.
This summer has been a very interesting one to say the least. My slogan or motto of the summer and maybe even soon to be applied to my life has been "The heck with it." Ive realized that I am young, in shape, and able to do things that are crazy and spontaneous simply because of the fact that I am young and not in the "adult" world yet. Now I don't mean things like partying and what not, stuff like going on adventures, not worrying about staying out late with friends just because I have to get up early the next morning. Just taking advantage of every opportunity I have to make an awesome memory that someday I will look back and say...man i'm glad I did that.
As I was reflecting on my summer this morning, I realized one thing in common with every random spontaneous decision I made: I was thinking long term. If I wanted to go on an adventure (which only happens under the cover of night..usually really late) but I had to get up early and go to work the next morning, I would think to myself, "you're only young once Russ, who cares if you are going to be tired tomorrow..20 years from now you will be telling the story of what you did tonight to your children.." I was thinking long term. Trying not to dwell on what is to come the next day, living in the moment, knowing that God does not even promise me tomorrow. Living like this allows you to take advantage and make the most of the time you have here on earth.
But it got me thinking about my spiritual life and it dawned on me..what if I started living spiritually like I do physically? By that I mean, what if I kept in mind an eternal perspective of things, but still lived in the moment taking advantage of every opportunity I have to bring glory to God knowing that it will have an eternal impact? Can you imagine what that would look like? Does that make sense? I am young, I am healthy, I am ABLE to do so many things to reach out to others and bring glory to God. Much like I live physically, going on a late night adventure, not caring about if I have to wake up early the next morning..sacrifice a little sleep for an awesome memory.. spiritually, why not do the same? For example, how about serving a brother or sister in Christ who is deeply longing to be heard by somebody, and going to get coffee and just listening to them? How about waking up early before work to get in the word and be fed the truth of the Gospel despite losing an hour of sleep..all knowing that it will have an eternal impact on either you, or the people around you? Think about the impact we could have with not only our lives, but the peoples lives around us if we as Christians lived with an eternal perspective!
You see friends, living with an eternal perspective makes you realize that you don't have much time on this earth. It makes us realize that every second counts and every second is a second devoted to Christ or a second given to the world. Sounds cheesy but when you really think about it...I believe it to be true..and scary at the same time. If you could find phrases in the "cheesy" Christian dictionary, I think the definition of "The heck with it," would be something like this: "Thinking with an eternal perspective, living and loving others as if today were your last, knowing that tomorrow is never promised."
Time is so short friends. Every second counts. Am I perfect? By no means. Am I striving every day to live by this motto? Yes. Do I fail miserably at taking advantage of every opportunity I have to bring Glory to Christ because of stupid things like wanting more sleep or doing what I want..? Yes. But that's not stopping me from trying, and it shouldn't stop you either. So my question for you...spiritually, are you living by the motto "the heck with it?"
A BIG thanks for stopping by today!! Hope the heat hasn't gotten to you..I will leave you with a piece of advice that my football coaches constantly reminded us of in heat like this..."Clear pee is happy pee." I wont charge you for that one. ok Byyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
-R
