Before the Sun Sets

This is from another site where I was also posting a blog. I just thought I ought to bring it all together in one spot.

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I enjoy gardening and building simple things for the house and garage. The time for such things is while it is still light out. Once the sun begins its daily plunge to and below the horizon, I am forced to prioritize the remaining work and fit it into the remaining daylight

My life is like that. The sunset is becoming easier to picture than the sunrise is to remember. I have an increasing desire to know what is most important and get it done while there is time. There are consequences to such thinking. Priorities come with a price.

For all of my life, family has been a priority. When I was young, it was my parents and siblings, then my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Since 1971 it has been Cathy with Aaron, Alison, and David becoming permanently engraved as each entered our lives. Someday, I believe… I hope… I think I want… we will also gratefully and joyfully embrace our new son and daughters when our children get married. And then, joy of joys, GRANDKIDS! But that is yet to be and this is now.

Above my family I have desired, at least in word and intent, to lace my relationship with God. Yet, words and intent are vaporous if not indurated by consistent and sincere lifestyle. It is at this point that the willingness to pay the price for such a priority becomes evident to all. Talk is cheap but the cost of living… Suffice it to say that the desire to please people has too often been a barrier to pleasing God. Jacob Marely had his heavy chain, comprised of countless links. I have mine, too, with many of those links being forged from truths twisted or softened in order to make them more agreeable to others. There is no way of knowing how many people were pushed away from the cross because of my weakness. I have been in disparate need of the wisdom and insight of Jim Elliot who wrote, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."

So, now that I am closer to the grave than the cradle, I may begin to appear a bit more rigid and inflexible, particularly with regards to God's eternal truths. May the appearance reflect the reality, but may those characteristics be refined and presented in companionship with an increasing love for God and others. May I be willing to forfeit their friendship for the cause of their salvation.

Always In Him,

Jim