Deadlines, Seen and Unseen

Deadlines:

I'm up against a deadline.  That's nothing new.  I spent most of my life as the pastor of a small church.  Sunday is always coming.  This one is a bit different, though.  While the deadline is real and missing it will have consequences, those consequences are less immediate than the preacher showing up Sunday morning with nothing to say.  Actually the real deadline is still ten days off--a lifetime for a guy who worked week-to-week for most of his life.  However, if I'm going to meet that deadline in a week and a half I have to meet a self-imposed one today. Several proverbs--or maybe they are cliche's; you decide-- compete for attention in my mind.   "You have to aim for perfection in order to achieve an acceptable result."  I learned that from a guy who never strove for perfection at any time in his good-enoughlife.  Still, the aphorism has some merit. "The perfect is the enemy of the good."  Some of those perfection-strivers burn so much time getting point A just right, that they never get to B or C, and A by itself just won't cut it. "Keep the big picture in mind." "Little things matter." Back when one of the biggest questions I asked myself, week in and week out, was, "What am I going to preach on Sunday?"  I had to learn that my task was not to preach the best sermon I could, but to prepare the best sermon I could with the resources, including time, that I have.  Now that I'm in this retirement, or second career, phase of life I'm accutely aware that we all face an unseen deadline.  The Bible makes clear that "it is appointed unto men once to die" (Hebrews 9:27), but God doesn't enter the date on Google Calendar for us.  I've watched enough people die to know that likely that deadline will be preceded by other smaller cutoff points.  I remember when I told my mom she couldn't drive anymore, and when we knew that dad couldn't be trusted to get from point A to B. The Psalm writer prayed, "LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered" (Psalm 39:4, NLT).  If you read the rest of David's musings you will see that he prayed at a time of great turmoil.  He feared for his life.  Unlike David's, my life is pretty good, but, as surely as Sunday is coming, so is the end. It's STTA. At this site, you'll find some resources to help you prepare for that most important deadline, and live with real purpose until then