Life is for living!

We're going back to the states in less than a week to renew visas, legally change Heather's name and hopefully raise support for a truck. Have we really been here two and a half months? Have we really been married two and a half months!?! Time has passed so fast. They say time passes faster as you get older... Does this mean I am old? I'm married ... One day I will be a dad... Soon I will be taking my kids to buy shoes, then to college, then a vehicle, and later when they are 35 to be married! Oh lord! Don't freak out Mark!


Ok I may be exaggerating a bit, but it does seem like next week I will be changing diapers. (And let me assure you that regardless of my mother's persistence that is at least a year away.) What is it that makes time seem to be elusive? Why is the only consistent in life change? How do I keep up with it? Can I?


I believe I can. Paul said in Ephesians 5:15 & 16 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” Encouraged by this Paul says we can be wise and make good use of our time. He in fact implores it. As I look back on the time in my life when I just let time pass and did not make good use of it, I see I was being unwise. 


I love Ecclesiastes 3 where it speaks of a time for everything. There is a time for us to do many things but in the same chapter the author says, "God will call the past to account." God does not expect us to waste time nor fret over the future. Wisdom says to live each moment to it's fullest. As one of my pastors, Fernando Gutierrez says, "Life is for living!" How do we do this though?


Ecclesiastes 3 also says in verse 15 "I know that everything God does will endure forever" 
So we get behind the eternal and we have security in what we are doing. When we do God's will we are assured we are not wasting time. This looks different for many people, but one thing all of us have in common is God has called us to love. Love Him and Love others. When we do this we are assured that our time has not been in vein. Instead our life has the greatest purpose. 


So here I am seeing much has happened in my life. I have sold and am selling almost all i own in the states. Soon we hope to buy a truck here. I got married! A lot is continuing to happen; life is moving forward. These are things that signify life as I know it will never be the same. And I can look at it with joy! Isn't it amazing! God promises a changed life and that is what we get. It's what I got! Does it mean when you become a Christian that you will get married and move to another country maybe, maybe not. One thing is for sure as a Christ follower life will look different and we can have joy living it to the fullest. I can promise I will try my hardest to live every second of it as God intended, to the fullest!


You were made for this! Live life. Love God. Love Others. Don't waste a second! Life is for living!