Posts Tagged: Worries

DTEB, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO FOREVER RIGHT NOW!”

On April 3, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I was whining around to my sweetheart about the fact that I haven’t read all the scholarly articles and books that I should have read.  Of course, the question that might be asked is this: Who has read all the scholarly books and articles?  However, this is cold comfort.  “The heart knows its own bitterness.” (Proverbs 14:10a)

Then, whether as a dodge or as a wise word, I added, “Well, there is eternity, I suppose.”

And the love of my life said, “And you don’t have to do forever right now!”

Now that was a wise saying!

I am not sure what Ecclesiastes 3:11 means when it says, “God . . . has planted eternity in the human heart . . . .”  But I do know that verse 11 comes after verses 1-10.  (See!  I really am pretty sharp!)  And verses 1-10 talk about how there is an appropriate time for all things.  God may have planted eternity in our hearts, but God has planted us in time.

A time for everything?  Well, not exactly.  Not even the Preacher of Ecclesiastes (who was the skeptics skeptic) said that there was a time for regrets about the past or worries about the future.

And I suspect that the author of Ecclesiastes would agree with my wife that “you don’t have to do forever right now.”

 

 

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“DYING EVERY NIGHT, REBORN EVERY DAY”

On June 6, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

 

“. . . I die daily” (Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:31).

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34, New Living Translation).

“And come what may at the break of each day
We all begin anew once more, we all begin anew” (The Moody Blues, “The Other Side of Life”).

I am toying with a very strange idea.  (For those of you who know me well, that probably doesn’t seem strange at all.)

Here is the idea: Every night, when I go to bed, I die.  Every morning, when I awake, I am reborn.

The reason why the notion of dying every night and being reborn every morning is helpful to me is this: I am in the import business.  I tend to import regrets from the past and worries about the future into my present.  My present is heavily mortgaged due to this.  I am not a particularly good business person.

I have a past, and it is not a very good one in many ways.  It is comforting to me to remember that I don’t have to remember all that stuff all the time.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying that my past evils don’t have ongoing results.  They flat out do!  However, focusing on them all the time doesn’t help me to atone for them.  If the cross of Jesus Christ didn’t do that, I am a dead man, as dead as dead can be.  Remaining focused on past wrong-doing tends to lead me toward despair at an accelerating pace.  Furthermore, the more I focus on my past, the more likely I am to go back to it.

I was out on the Little Miami Bike Trail the other day, when I heard a father give his young son a very sound piece of wisdom.  I was passing this family, when this little guy looked back.  Of course, he steered into my path.  I was anticipating such a possibility, and hit the brakes.  As I went around the family, I heard the little guy’s dad say, “Don’t look back, or you’ll go the wrong way!”  The dad might as well have been talking to me.

When I start the new day with a new version of myself, I find it much easier to be at peace, and to get things done.  Perhaps there is a reason why we are given our moments little by little.  Maybe, just maybe, God or the Universe or someone/something set things up that way.

Have a good day, but be sure to die tonight!  However, I do hope that you’ll be reborn in the morning!

 

 

 

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