The Distance Between

The Distance Between:

Asking “Are we there yet?” just 10 minutes into a 5 hour journey shows you have no comprehension of time, speed or distance. Keep asking the question over and over, well, I know a roll of duct tape that is simply longing to be used toward a good purpose!

To understand the journey, you must understand how to measure the time, distance, speed, resistance and effort it takes to move from the beginning, to the ending. What’s the distance between a second and a minute, a minute and an hour? What’s the difference between the first step, and the last step? First breath. Last breath. Full head of hair. No hair!

Could you answer me this?
What’s the difference between a Good day, and a not so good day?

Imagine a person taking their last journey down the Green Mile from their cell to their last lounging space, the distance between the beginning and the ending must be incredibly short, yet an indelibly a long space of time. Tunnel vision. Prodded forward, you must want to hang back and make this trip extremely slow.

Where Did Yesterday Go?

What Happened To Yesterday?

A last minute event sort of ruined all my plans Yesterday. If my short term memory serves me correctly, my time was planned – it almost seemed that every minute had a task to accomplish and a goal to reach. There was a little room for distraction, but not much. Little events crowded the schedule, so some things are left undone and get moved to Today.

Fortunately, there is a Today that I can re-task and re-schedule. Some of yesterday will cross over into today with the hope that it will not bleed into Tomorrow.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Sometimes a revolving mismatch of segments of time that cannot seem to find a proper place to anchor to a clock and be a completed task.

We have all heard the saying, “Yesterday is History. Today is the Present. Tomorrow is a Blessing.” Yesterday is History. I cannot undo the mistakes or rewrite the events. They are what they are.

In the book of Job, Bildad the Shumite says something that is profound.

For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.
(Job 8:9 ESV)

My analysis is simple. We are a product of all our Yesterdays, and all of our life is but as fleeting as a shadow – it creeps across the landscape but is rapidly approach the end. And we cannot exist in our yesterday…

Roy Clark sings a country flavored song called, “Yesterday”, through which he bemoans the wasted time and effort of his younger “yesterdays.” Most of our Yesterdays do not consider the future. No one plans on being sick, or being forced to move, or losing a close friend or loved one, or having an accident, or even missing an important event. Yesterdays are full of the present and what needs to be accomplished now. Even if it is full of time-wasters! At some point you will leave Yesterday behind, and maybe will even have to pay the consequences of your actions.

The closing words to Clark’s song?

The time has come for me to pay for yesterday when I was young.

The problem is that many want to relive Yesterday. Remember. It’s History. Let’s not sit in disbelief of yesterday, struggling to get a start on today!

And in the daily opening thought of the singer Charlie Daniels, “Let’s make Today Count!”

Resistance is Not Futile

A remembered moment of 40 years ago.

“The devil made me do it,” via the voice of Flip Wilson in one of his comedic roles. With his humor, the world took a sneak peak at the inside thoughts of someone “giving the devil his due.” Why do we give him so much credit? It’s almost as if we enjoy the fact that our opposition is good as something, maybe even wishing we were as good as the foe.

Not that I want to match my wits or talents with the devil, but Charlie Daniels did with his 1979 song, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

The big problem with the devil is that we often think of him as a horned and recognizable image from someone’s fruitful imagination. But Paul tells us something different:

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14 ESV)

The devil disguises himself into something acceptable, and even noteworthy. Else, how would he have beguiled Adam and Eve in the garden of perfection?

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.  (Genesis 3:1-7 ESV)

As mentioned to our church the other day, even in the close confines of a Godly existence, those who are closest to God can be deceived. Easily.

Yet, James wrote a phrase and often we think that all we have to do under our own power is to “Resist the devil and he will flee” from us. (James 4:7) We speak to the mountain with faith the size of a mustard seed, “Move from here to there”. Jesus said nothing will be impossible for us! (Matthew 17:20).

What Jesus tells us, and so does James if we read his reference in context, that there is a process we should go through in order to exercise ourselves for standing up to the enemy of our soul, or to the hindrances in our pathway.

Look at James for a moment.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.  (James 4:7-10 ESV)

Let me restate it in short phrases.

• Submit to God – In a simple thought that means to listen and do as he speaks to you.
• Resist the devil – If my attention is submitted to God then the devil has no place in my world.
• Draw to God – Through prayer I enter into a close proximity to him.
• God draws to us – It’s almost as if the Father is waiting on the prodigal: “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”  (Luke 15:20 ESV)
• Cleanse your hands – This speaks of our actions
• Purify your hearts – This speaks of our motives and desires
• Wretched, mourn, weep – An inward action that bears fruit outwards
• Humble – Bring yourself low before him, not at his head but at his feet, the true position of a penitent petitioner
• He will lift you up – Restores you when it is time

Some think that their lot in life is where they find themselves to be. Yet, experience tells us we do not have to stay that way. The prodigal son “came to himself” as he considered his existence of living and eating with the pigs. He had a conversation with himself and determined it was better to return to upright living, even a status not as high as he once had, than to live in desperate need and low estate.

I think about Robin Williams dying at his own hands. A comedic genius who could make anyone laugh. What about life got so full of despair that this was his only option? Was there no one in his life speaking to him, or looking from afar for his return? 

I know many people who have come away from the brink of a final life choice and found safety in God’s arms.

How about you?