Saturday, October 18, 2008

Enjoy the View

I read this article in Christianity Today titled "On The Grand Canyon Bus" by Phillip Yancey and I wanted to share part of it:

"We find it difficult to maintain a commitment to both this world and the next, to this life and the next.

A friend of mine uses the analogy of a busload of tourists en route to the Grand Canyon. On the long journey across the wheat fields of Kansas and through the glorious mountains of Colorado, the travelers inexplicably keep the shades down. Intent on the ultimate destination, they never even bother to look outside.

As a result, they spend their time arguing over such matters as who has the best seat and who's taking too much time in the bathroom.

The church can resemble such a bus, says my friend. We should remember that the Bible has far more to say about how to live during the journey than about the ultimate destination."
(to read the complete article, click here)

God desires for us to live fully in this lifetime - to learn to know Him on this earth. To be the ones who pull up the shades, open the window and to invite others to breathe deeply the freshness that God has for His children each day. My dad used to say that some are "too heavenly minded to be any earthly good" and others are "too earthly minded to be of heavenly good." He encouraged us to find the balance between the two extremes.

Lamentations 3:22-24 "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed. for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of the God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge."

Matthew 25:14 "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. "


Praying that we will all embrace the talents that God has bestowed upon us and encourage each other to enjoy the view as we press on...

Many Blessings!

4 comments:

Kathryn said...

What a beautifully expressed analogy, Shanda!

Hope your weekend is going well ... :-)

Anonymous said...

Amen sista! I just sat down to plan my week and read this post. What a great message to kick it off! Thanks Shanda!

Anonymous said...

Found your blog through SITS and decided to drop by and leave a note!

LOVE LOVE LOVE your post! I'm reading through more of your blog now, but I am loving what I read! Thank you!

Nanny Goats In Panties said...

What a nice post, Shanda. I like the analogy.

Thank you for swinging by my blog to say hello, SITSta. Hope you have a nice week, stopping and smelling the roses.

- Margaret