Gandalf Speaks Once Again..........

When I am down and troubled about the state of our country, I hearken back to Gandalf and his response to Frodo in the Mines of Moria.  All their troubles, all their fears are pressing down hard on this little insignificant Hobbit,  'Frodo sighs, “I wish none of this had happened,” Gandalf’s response speaks to us, too: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” '

I have a feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better for this great country of ours, and we as believers have to grasp it as an opportunity to display to the world just what is really important.  I say this with fear and trembling.  I do not even know if I want to say it at all.  I am with Frodo, paraphrase, "Let's go back to the Shire....."  There is no going back, and by saying we need to "grasp the opportunity, means accountability, testing, and reality in my life."  I in myself, cannot live up to this testing, and am actually afraid of it.  What if God allows my house to be taken away, my financial "security" gone, my freedom taken away?  I do not know what I will do.  Maybe I should say with Scarlet, "I will worry about that tomorrow."  Yes, that is what I will do.  After all, didn't Jesus say, "tomorrow has enough troubles of its own."  Something deep down also says, "don't worry, but be prepared."  I guess I just need to focus on living today for His glory.  Easy to say, difficult to do.  

Time Marches On.......

Maybe, if you are like me, you remember sitting in your elementary school class room listening to your teacher mention what life would be like in the year 2000.  I remember counting in my head how old I was going to be in 2000, I thought, I will be almost dead by then.  The year 2000 was nine years ago, time marches on, and I am still alive.

When I was in the third or fourth grade I went over to a friends house to play.  Her father worked for Texas Instruments in Dallas.  We were watching TV, and her father told us, someday, we would be able to record our TV shows and watch them later, and watch movies on tape on TV.  Oh, I was impressed.  I thought, though, no way.  Time marches on.  

Maybe you also remember the first landing on the Moon, the Carter years when we had long gas lines, hyper inflation, and the nightly counting down of how long the American hostages had been held in Iran.  Then came the Carter debacle of using our troops to try to covertly rescue them.  It failed.  Time Marches on.  

Maybe you remember the 17% interest rates on mortgage loans during that time.  The first home Ken and I ever bought had, I think, a loan with 15% interest, whoa!  Tough times.  Now the interest rates are at historic lows.  Time marches on, changes happen.  

In his life time, my grandfather, fought in three different wars.  Born in the late 1800's, he fought in the Spanish American War, World War I, and World War II.  He saw combat on four different continents, including India.  Amazing.  He deemed that fighting for freedom was an endeavor that was worth laying his life on the line for-three different times.  I do not think that my generation or the ones after mine, have even come close to having been tested any way near what my grandfather's generation was.  Time marches on.  

I would say that the majority of Americans today do not feel that there is anything worth dying for; not freedom, not family, not anything eternal, nothing.  How sad.  I really don't believe you can experience a life worth living, until you are willing to die for something.  Jesus taught us there was something worth laying our lives down for.  The people that want to hold on to this life so tightly that they don't want to die, don't live to the fullest either.  

Time will continue to march on and death will eventually take all of us, unless Jesus comes first.  Do you feel in your soul that you are truly living?