My big sister Valinda died last week. My mind still reels as one part gives the commands for my fingers to type the letters that appear on the screen, while another part struggles to comprehend that reality. As I have pondered on it over the last few days I realized that I failed her in so many ways, perhaps in no way more than simply believing that there’s always tomorrow. It’s so easy for me to set my eyes on the future and believe that there’s always time for transformation — in my faith walk, in personal relationships, in life. Yet, by doing so, I miss the gifts and the opportunities that are available to me in the present. Transformation should never be postponed for some “better” time we imagine is just over the hill or around the next corner. God calls us to begin a new phase of growth each day and I think that’s one reason I like Walter Malone’s poem ‘Opportunity’ so much. The fourth and fifth stanzas capture that thought of beginning anew quite well:

Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell;

Art thou a sinner? Sins may be forgiven;

Each morning gives thee wings to flee from hell,

Each night a star to guide thy feet to heaven.

 

Laugh like a boy at splendors that have sped,

To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb;

My judgments seal the dead past with its dead,

But never bind a moment yet to come.

Oh, that last line is so wonderful isn’t it? By the grace of God our past does not bind our future!

That’s good news, folks – the good news of the gospel. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again and Lent calls us to a dedicated time of preparation and growth in our faith walk. Yesterday was the second Sunday of Lent which means that we have 30 days left.

What are you doing with the time?