Living for THE moment....

Have you ever been somewhere, and for just a moment, it seemed like time stood still?  Or it seemed like time really didn't matter?  Perhaps it was overlooking the ocean, as you watched a magnificent sunset.   Perhaps it was holding a loved one who was dying.  Or else maybe it was like my morning today.  It was an ordinary day, in a way.  But with a dusting of snow outside, it made for a beautiful backdrop, to a morning where Caleb and I got to read our Bibles together in silence.  This morning was a gift really.

Life is made up of many moments.  One moment after another moment after another moment.

And I am realizing each of these moments really do matter.  Each moment we live our lives is an investment.

A good friend of mine came into the salon yesterday and it turned into a pretty deep conversation.  She was talking about how recently she had been thinking of how deceitful sin can be, as we allow it to make its way into our lives.  It can be gradual at first, one "little" compromise...and before you know it, what seemed "okay" one moment, all of a sudden creates a huge mess of ugliness in our lives.  And the next thing you know, the next moment of your life is so overwhelming and devastating.


My first thought was that I completely agreed with her.  I know from  my own life, and from talking to so many people every single day, that sin (in the moment) seems great...we justify it at that moment, or just give in to it, or ignore it for the time.  There are many times we just let sin in because, for that moment, it is the most comfortable thing to do.

Even Moses, in the Bible, came face to face with this dilemma of if he should live for the moment or not.  It says in  Hebrews 11 that "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward."   This passages teaches me a couple of things.  It says that sin is pleasurable.  And it also says that it is only pleasurable for a short time...the pleasure is passing.  But the other thing it teaches me is that I can take Moses' example...Moses had the right focus, in the moment of decision, in that he looked forward to a moment that was not yet.

And here is the real lesson I think I am learning.

We have a choice.  We can invest our moments in the temporal or the eternal.

Scripture tells us that the day IS coming.  The moment will be here, and we do not know exactly when that moment is...when JESUS WILL APPEAR.  He is coming.  All of history is pointing to that moment.  He is coming again.  And everything will be laid bare.  He is going to come to rescue, judge, and make everything right.  He will rescue those that are His from the suffering of this world.  He will judge those who do not know Him and love Him.  And all the of the ugly suffering and sin and ick in this world will be done away with.  No more tears.  No more heartbreak.  No more bad relationships.  You name it.  But He is coming and, wow, that will be the moment of all moments!!!  It will by far surpass the beautiful sunsets and majestic mountains I have seen with my own eyes.

The question we need to be asking ourselves is which moment are we living for?

Are we living for the present moment or are we living for that one incredible moment that is to come?

Sometimes, like my quiet morning today, it is so easy to keep my mind focused on the eternal.  It is times like that when it is easy to say I am living for the day I see Jesus.  But other times, it is so much harder to remember that truth, and it is easy to give into sin.  In Scripture we often see that the motivation to keep us from sin should be that Jesus IS coming back.  And we WILL see Him.  And we WILL give an account of our lives to Him. 1Johnn 3:2-3 says "We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

I pray I find the beautiful balance of enjoying the moments God has given me, and to live each moment investing in the eternal, as I await the final moment I have been waiting for.  At that moment, all the world will know and see Jesus, the One I love, the One that loves me, the One who will appear and save me.

It will be the moment we have all been waiting for......and I pray living for.