A couple of
weeks ago, Sara and I attended the “South East Cornerstone Public School Board
Employee Recognition Night”. It was an
evening of good visiting, great food and lots of laughs.
It was also an evening of reflection as each of the superannuating teachers was given a chance to talk about their careers. Interestingly, two themes kept coming up. The first was that their careers went by very quickly. Even those who had been on the job for more than thirty years said things like, “It seems like just yesterday that I started teaching” or “It all just flew by”. The second theme was “the importance of people”. Many commented that, while they enjoyed the “job” of teaching, it was the students and the other staff members that made the experience worthwhile. The human interaction was the big part.
“Time is short” and “People are important” are two themes that I have heard in two other places as well.
If you have children, you probably had someone say to you, “Enjoy your little kids, because they will be grown and gone before you know it”. In other words, “Time is short” and “People (your kids) are important”. The older my children get, the more I understand what those people were telling me.
The other place I see those two themes is in the word of God.
James 4:14 says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”. Time is short.
John 13:34-35 says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”. People are important.
Actually, there was a third theme that night: “the transition”. With the “career” part of their life ending, most people had already made at least some preliminary plans for what was next.
The fact is that there is a “transition” coming for each of us. At some point, this life will end and our
eternal destiny will determined. As 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad”.
Time is short. People are important. Christ is coming.
Three important truths that will help us live purposefully right now.
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