The first decade of 2000 is past

The first decade of the new century has passed and if you are like me you could be wondering where the first 10 years of the 2000’s went? Y2K didn’t end the world as was predicted and I guess I will hold on to those books in my personal library for a historical perspective and wonder in the eye of those that will look them over in the future years to come. They will no doubt be wondering how this was ever a crisis in the United States and the world with both a smile and laughter.
I have found myself facing a new problem in this year of 2011. Never before have I had such difficulty in writing the date out numerically until now. I keep writing 2010 instead of 2011 when I am writing the date on nearly everything. I’m not stuck in a time warp but for whatever reason my fingers just don’t want to write 2011. I really laugh at myself when my friends, co-workers and family members point out I have written the wrong date. It is a serious issue with legal contracts and documents that require the correct date for binding and authentication. Even on submitting my newspaper column I’ve catch myself struggling with the correct year when attaching the date of publication to my submissions. I’m glad that folks haven’t called the authorities to report me having lost my mind. Although if there was some time of payment I could receive from such a revelation that might not be a bad think all together….yes, I’m laughing at myself and smiling ear to ear as I type this out.
Considering time there are many scriptures in the Bible that make reference to time. Scriptures says that “He does all things well, in His time.” The Bible also reads that “there is a time for everything”. When you read that scripture in Ecclesiastes is records that there is both a time to remember and a time to forget. Learning to wait on time is not an easy discipline. Sometimes in cooking fried potatoes I find myself not wanting to wait, rather I opt to eat as I go when helping to cook at my parents home on holidays. The biggest problem I have at that moment is keeping my brother Jim Jr, and my sister Bridget’s fingers out of the frying pan. Wow, wouldn’t life be great if that could be the biggest problem I had? Life has it challenging moments and waiting upon the Lord is difficult. The reward for waiting upon the Lord is that He will renew our strength if we will only allow Him His time.
With the speed of passing days the time is certainly now that we seize the moments we have and use them to honor and glorify the Lord with our time and energy. I normally say Happy New Year to folks until at least Valentine’s Day arrives. I have occasionally had folks ask me if I’m stuck at the beginning of the year when I give that type of salutation. I believe it is certainly reasonable to celebrate the New Year for at least the first month of every year but from the rush of some folks they press on for another day quickly. When you think about the last days of the life of Jesus it appears that He didn’t rush through the time, but allowed with great patience a process to be completed that he personally didn’t want to experience. Only once did he tell someone to go quickly. He instructed Judas to go quickly but history records the patience Jesus practiced even in that situation. My prayer is that I can only be so willing to wait and to allow the proper time to arrive when it is best and not when I want such to be completed. Rushing time could very well set us up for a bad experience. Allowing things to move at their own pace is difficult but we are best served by learning to practice this mentioned trait from the Bible.

Until then