I've been meaning to call but you know how busy I stay and how time seems to slip away.

It's Tuesday, October 12, 2010, Monday is behind us, and we have today to do what we can with the time we have available to us. Time is getting away from us and I am aware that we need not sit and fret over each second as it vanishes before our eyes. At the same time we should be aware that when it comes to people and things we want them to know or something special we want to say to them, it pays to do it now. We all likely have some regrets over some things that we needed to have said but because the time was never right or we didn't take the time to do it, it's now too late. I'm not always a spontaneous type of person because I tend to mull things over before I act. This can easily turn into procrastination and my wife believes in my case it doesn't need to turn into it because it's there already just as a way of how I do or don't do things. However, there are times when I have someone on my mind and I at least consider that perhaps God has placed them there. A few times this prompted me to call them leading to a conversation that ended up being a huge blessing. We had a fellow in our Church service stand up one day and with tears he pleaded with everyone to tell those near to them of their love each time they leave home. He had just experienced the loss of a co-worker who had left home one morning but was killed in an accident. This had caused him to appreciate and count precious the moments we have to tell others of our love and care for them.

Many years ago I remember when folks were passing out little "Round Tuit" plaques to remind people about how easy it is to say I'll do it whenever I can get around to it. When you told them this as a response they would solve your problem by handing you a "Round Tuit." Of course this didn't solve the issue but it did bring a smile and maybe even jolted the thought process a little. Let me let you in on a secret. We typically are not going to get around to a lot of things that we should get around to doing. I hear myself from so many years ago talking through my children as they tell their children maybe in a little while, or when I get a few minutes, or not now but later. Some of that is natural but it can become not only habit forming but habitual in how we respond as it relates to the use of our time.Taking time could become one of the greatest investments we will ever make. How about taking the time to share a word of truth with someone because they are on your heart? We've all heard the testimonies of how 'that' conversation became the last one, but it ended in victory because someone took the time to make that contact. I suppose if we wait long enough to get around to it we will fulfill that popular folk song's message: "But, I ain't gonna need this house no longer, Ain't gonna need this house no more, Ain't got time to fix the shingles, Ain't got time to fix the floor, Ain't got time to oil the hinges, Or to mend the window pain, Ain't gonna need this house no longer, I'm a-gettin' ready to meet the saints."

The song is a metaphor for our life. There are probably some repairs I need to make and maybe even a few you can think of in your life. I just thought of another song that pretty much sums it up. It's one that my wife and I used to sing. It's about a decision being made to finally trust the Lord but it was made, One Day Too Late. "And you came one day too late, yes, just one day too late, Jesus came and you've been left behind, Yesterday you couldn't find time for Jesus on your mind, You finally came to call His name, one day too late." That can be true about so many things in our life. I'm sitting here thinking about a number of 'I should have', 'wish I would have', situations that will never be able to be responded to again. Some of these came not one day too late but way too many days too late. You might have thought of someone or something while you were trying to make sense out of all these words I've put on the electronic page. My suggestion would be not to reject those thoughts because we all need to be reminded of the difference between the incessant demand of the urgent versus the whispering quiet call of that which can be of eternal value. Enough said. We all should be out there somewhere listening for those whispers. Good advice and counsel, for me, for you, for us all! Amen.          .......More later.