togetherness

Time of Our Lives

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It was a fabulous adventure, a mystery-dinner event that we play-acted last night after just a few rehearsals, and my role was the doctor – checking on everyone and how they were feeling – with a few mysteries of my own which got revealed “in time”… And we all worked together as the family team we are, even if we had just met. I love meeting people and we share a cause – I love working the people who know that we are in this life together and we can do great things – even if it is simply showing up for someone else.

Such a hilarious time – less stress and certainly many hands make LIGHT work – and wow the director writer concept everything young woman has a great bright future ahead of her – everyone loves someone who knows how to run the ship. We got into ship shape and sailed into the program with just a few rehearsals… whew…

Both in practice and then for the actual event, we cracked each other up with our ad-libs, staying in character, which was the treat for us too – to be witty. The audience suspected MANY people, and a marvelous time was had by all. And yummy food, and blessed after party for decompression, I loved seeing the maid still costumed doing karaoke… her kids were tired, but she could have rolled on hours and hours more… Another mom there had rode the train up to the big city and then back in the same day – time well spent and managed – and then got to this big event. Time rolls like a train – steadily at times – stopping at times – and isn’t that the most interesting thing about time, it often rolls on when we are not noticing. It is hard for us to imagine how long we live without noticing we have lived it, and then wow it is 50 years later.

Time – I carried the old fashioned timepiece as a fashion accessory, a chain with watchface, it was 1960s or 1970s not 1800’s, but I found it quite suitable for the scene of the doctor checking for a pulse. I held it and it was snapped into my vest, a gorgeous quilted maroon fabric I got at the thrift store. The whole ensemble came together in 10 minutes and well that was time well spent. And well the people of the time – the gentleman of that time – had to have precise time pieces and synchronized their watches on chains often.

This watchpiece necklace however was my grandmother’s – my dad’s mom – from the 1970’s. I can remember my dad giving it to my grandma because the watch she wore on her wrist was one that would wind by you moving your arm normally and my grandma was in a nursing home and she was very very sedentary, having lost a leg to “the sugar” as they called it in those days. My grandma never complained and kept as busy as she could in craft projects and watching TV, which I also remember the day my dad brought her a great big TV she could have at her bedside – wow. I remember so much of those 10 years of me visiting her in the nursing home – every other day – my dad found time (or tried to) every day to visit her if only a short time – and my dad was busy – but how important to visit – it was not a text message or phone call, but a check-in – and also his random timeslots he thought would keep the nurses on their toes too – helping them know that he might be in to see her – and hopefully that gave her better care. I remember my family saying it simply could not care for her at home and for 2 small children at the same time and both working too. We can never be in two or more different places at the same time. I do remember so much time was spent for me in childhood – time then seemed so slow and now it flies. I know that I had a blessed childhood full of love and that is priceless. I pray every child gets a memory database full of cherished times.

Time does fly – it is a memory now – 50 years ago – and it is a recurring fresh thought that the time we spend with people is SO important – family who are friends and friends who are family – and even random people to whom we can make a difference… Honestly it is the time of our lives that we can be semi-stewards of – as we get to choose what we do in leisure time – which is much more these days than our parents had or our grandparents or before them… Let us use our time wisely.

And there are times we can not take – just not enough time in the day – so true. And there are times (not often for me) where time stands still – but I have seen it – and more often when you are trying to fit MUCH into a moment, well it seems there is time for it! Especially when I am in a situation where I think I have synchronized my clock with God’s. Remember it isn’t the other way around. God’s Time is His Own – we barely live within the sweeping hand of time – hold onto life while we can.

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” – 2 Peter 3:8

I can not even imagine what time feels like to God – I know that we need sleep and wow I was so tired I could have slept on the dining room table last night at the after party while the maid-dressed spitfire of a lady was dancing and singing karoke… I was ready for my crash. And I can not even imagine that God never tires – never rests – is all- knowing – that alone should make us realize that His Ways are above our ways. We are human people being human and God is perfect. Of all the time we have – may we be praising the Lord for the time He gives us – and praise Him in all circumstances good and bad.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” – Isaiah 40:28

So – I could spend all of time writing how amazing the Lord is and how we should make the most of our time – but really – WE SHOULD MAKE THE MOST OF OUR TIME. And we (I certainly do) thank the Lord that He makes us stop and rest too – resting restores our minds, our muscles, our movement – to get up and do it (living each day) again…

And so I put this beautiful watch away – actually hang it to the wall where I notice it on occasion and remember the memories – remember the shortness of life – remember to keep moving. I try not to watch the clock but sometimes I do… I don’t wear a watch (I use my phone) – and this past year has been a whole other type of time management – but I do remember that TIME IS A GIFT…

And the time we have is well worth living within God’s Time – He is beginning and end – we are given precious moments for Him for sure.

Let us LIVE the Time of our lives, because WE CAN.

AMEN

AMEN – and thank You Lord for the rest so I can be onto my next great adventure today…

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” – Revelation 1:8

Paul’s Letter to the T – for Life in Harmony, 2nd Cor 1

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YES OR NO? VOTE THIS ONE OR THAT?  

I DID get out to vote yesterday – not that I understood all the intricate details of all the races or the people – some yes but honestly I didn’t know much at all for some – but I voted…

One person I made sure to vote for was the son of the woman who handed me the sample “suggestions” ballot – I thought well, his mother came all the way to my little district (and yeah mine is little) – and the other thing I voted for was some people holding up a sign on an overpass over the highway, standing and waving a few times this last cold month – i thought – wow that’s a strange cause, they must really be dedicated for a proposition that seemed so hohum, not to worry about…  but they were there and I voted thinking of them…

That is one thing in the scripture that struck me this morning – in this look at one of Paul’s letters – the VOTE to be faithful was all about NOT being wishy washy or uninformed. This letter in this scripture is about teaching and believing in God fully – believing in Jesus – and that in God it is YES! All the promises in Him are YES!!!

Paul writes: “Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No? But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. “

Paul was writing about not boasting in himself but in each other for that the Lord had delivered and was delivering them – that they (both groups of letter writers and letter receivers) were faithful. And “we trust that He will still deliver us” – yes – the TRUST that they had and we have in the Lord will deliver us from the suffering (physical and emotional and otherwise) that we have in this present world.

Paul’s Letter to the T – for Life in Harmony – is that we believe in Jesus and in His Father – be led by the Spirit to TRUST and to OBEY.

Amen

2 Corinthians 1 NKJV
Greeting from Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Comfort in Suffering
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

Delivered from Suffering
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.

Paul’s Sincerity
For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end (as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Sparing the Church
And in this confidence I intended to come to you before, that you might have a second benefit— to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you, and be helped by you on my way to Judea. Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No? But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Moreover I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.