FROM THE PASTOR
November 5, 2017
Where were you 10 years ago today? What was happening on this very day and at this very moment in your life? Do you remember? If you’re like the majority of us… with very few exceptions, you have no idea. Life is just too fleeting to lock every event in a specific moment in time over an entire lifetime.
Still, even though that moment in time may not be locked in, we often retain both specific and general recollections of certain events. God has designed us to remember for both our benefit and our edification to His glory. And it’s that very design that makes it difficult to completely forget. In fact, one article I read stated the following when comparing the brain to a computer’s storage capacity…
Estimates of the human brain’s memory capacity vary wildly from 1 to 1,000 terabytes (for comparison, the 19 million volumes in the US Library of Congress represents about 10 terabytes of data).
If true, that means, if your brain is on the high side, you can store the equivalent of 100 complete library of congresses in it.
Still, even with that phenomenal storage capacity I find it amazing, given all the events in our lives that dominate our every moment, how few moments really impact us to the point that they become locked into a moment in time within our memories. Perhaps that has to do with God’s purpose for memory… to guide us and not to consume or dominate us. In fact, I am confident that God even reveals Himself in our ability to remember.
Stop and think about it. All the sleep we lost, all time invested in worry, all the mental gymnastics performed trying to solve that ‘issue of the moment’ has now disappeared like vapor on the wind. Never to be recovered. Given that, I believe we all need to ask… “Was that time well spent”, or was it time we would like to reclaim? You see, every moment spent is an investment. The question therefore becomes, “Am I investing my time wisely and are those investments eternally worthy?”
I find the Book of Ecclesiastes extremely beneficial concerning this matter. Ecclesiastes is the third book of three credited to Solomon. The first is Song of Solomon and is said to have been written in his youth. The Second is the Proverbs and is credited to his mid-years. But the Book of Ecclesiastes is said to be from his old age as he reflects back on where he has been. The entire book addresses the vanity of always investing in things that have little to no eternal significance… unless God’s glory and honor is the goal. As Solomon ends Ecclesiastes, he summarizes everything he has written by proclaiming…
Ecclesiastes 12:6-8 (NASB)
6 Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed;
7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
8 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is vanity!"
These verses make direct reference concerning our responsibility to make our time the Lord’s time while we still have time. Sixteen times in Ecclesiastics Solomon exclaims, “All is vanity” or “This is vanity too”. One could borrow the often-used phrase, “Let’s make the main thing the main thing”, before He calls us home.
We may not remember the exact moment in time of a certain event… but God will. One day we will stand before Him as He presents our works. May we never be in the position Solomon describes…
Ecclesiastes 2:11 (NASB)
11 Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.
May God be glorified as we invest in His Honor and Glory!!
Thank You for your faithfulness! Pastor Larry
