1 Corinthians 7:29-31, from The Message…
I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don’t complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple–in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things–your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.
Yesterday I went with the family up to Amicalola Falls and around north Georgia. It was the first Sunday “off” we’ve had in a long time. While I enjoyed the trip, the hikes, the apples, the falls, and the people, I did an awful lot of thinking about a lot of things. Then I came back home, fired up the computer and saw the news about Kyle Lake.
This morning, I woke up and started my day with the passage I quoted above. And since then, I’ve been thinking that time is indeed of the essence. We need to be busy fulfilling the work we’ve been called to do. We never know when that last opportunity is here. We never know, so we need to be fully engaged wherever we are.
I got to the 1 Corinthians passage via a Bible Gateway search for “work” after reading in Titus 1 this morning…
I left you on the island of Crete so you could complete our work there…
And that led me eventually to the New Living Translation of the 1 Corinthians passage…
Happiness or sadness or wealth should not keep anyone from doing God’s work. Those in frequent contact with the things of the world should make good use of them without becoming attached to them, for this world and all it contains will pass away.
My prayer for my life – for your life – today is that we will be found faithful to complete, fulfill, perform, accomplish, and finish our work here.
