My Usual Sunday Morning Sermon Blog

Often times I look to the future.  I like to plan.  I like to be visionary.  But I think that it is good to sometimes stop and "smell the roses".  To be in the here and now.  And that is hard for me.  I find myself thinking about Josh going to college next year.  I think about what Spencer will be doing in a few years when he graduates from Belmont.  I like to set goals and strive to reach them.

I think Christians are the same in many ways.  There always seems to be a push to talk about the end.  Armageddon.  And the end times.  And heaven.  I don't think there is anything wrong with thinking about all these things.  After all, the Christians main goal is to go to heaven.  But, I think that if you think about how Jesus spent his time on this earth, you will realize that he took time to be in the present.

For example, how many times do we read about Jesus stopping to help people as he traveled from city to city.  It seems like he was always stopping along the way to tend to someone's immediate needs.  Even when He was looking ahead to wherever He was traveling, He never lost sight of what was important right before His eyes in real time.  Jesus stopped to heal the blind man. He stopped and spoke to Zacchaeus and then went to his house to have a meal with him.  Jesus stopped to help a Samaritan woman at the well. 

"Time and time again, Jesus reminds us that the present is where we need to spend our time in order to better the people around us and help those along the way.  All too often, we lose sight of those lessons from Jesus and focus to completely on the goals and outcomes we expect to see in the future that we cast all else aside in the headlong pursuit of them."