Live for the Moment!

Wow!  Time is really beginning to fly!  Yesterday marked the one month date until we take to the friendly skies of Southwest and fly to our new home in the Southeast.  Things have been crazy busy around here as I combined with our daughter and her husband in North Carolina to find a new residence and then researched and set up a moving company for the cross country trip, a car transport for the Buick, one-way plane tickets for my wife and I and what turned out being the most difficult project in finding a safe and suitable transport for the pooch!  And as it happens… transporting the dog is the second most expensive part of the entire move!

Yesterday I decided that I needed a break from all the pressures of the move, so we gave in and decided we’d go ahead and attend the Friends of the Sonoma County Library Spring Book Fair.  I figured a few more books wouldn’t add too significantly to the final weight of the move… maybe that is, if I showed great self-control!  Well, I’m not sure of the self-control angle, but we walked out with nine books.  Following the fair we went to Target to pick up a few prescriptions and some groceries.

After we parked and I had helped my wife to her chair, I had an interesting experience when I knelt down to place her feet on the foot rests.  I suddenly thought of Joshua 24:15 where Joshua had just finished reviewing all that the Lord had done for the children of Israel and told them to “choose this day whom you will serve.” (Modern King James Version)  Only I heard the scripture in my head as “choose this MOMENT whom you will serve.”  Then in that instant I had a flash back of a few individuals we had encountered earlier in the day.

When we were traversing through the crowded book fair we came across a quiet young man who had paused to let us pass by.  The man seemed a little afraid and did not look me in the eye.  But as we passed I looked at him and softly thanked him for his kindness.  With that he looked up, the fear disappeared and he nodded with a slight smile.  Then there was the homeless man in the lobby of the Vets building where the book fair was held who looked away as we came by and the shabbily dressed young man standing and holding up a help sign at the corner near the highway off ramp.  From there I looked up across the crowded Target parking lot and everywhere I looked I saw countless women wearing their short-shorts as they walked to the store entrance on the warm California Spring afternoon.  Then I heard it again… “Choose this moment whom you will serve!”

In that flash of a minute I learned an important lesson from the Lord.  He was telling me that I need to choose who I will serve with every thought, every action and every word I speak.  Will I choose to serve that judgmental thought toward people who may look, sound or smell different than me, or yield to the love of God for those individuals?  Will I entertain improper thoughts from what I may see around me, or listen to the holy and pure voice of the Lord and avert my eyes?

All of this continued to flood my mind as we shopped and by the time we returned back to the car, I was sure that I had it down pat and didn’t have to concern myself with that question again… because I now knew the answer.  Then as we began to drive out of the lot, I stopped at the crosswalk near the road and with a know-it-all grin, smugly smiled at my wife only to look up just in time to see a young lady walking right in front of our car in her yoga pants and short shirt and INSTANTLY I heard it again: “choose this moment whom you will serve!”

Okay… Okay, I get it!  I’ll never get smug and let my guard down!  Yesterday I learned a question that I am going to repeatedly ask myself throughout each day of my life!  How about you?  Have a great week.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What or Whom am I expecting TO SERVE today?”