Skip to main content

Transitions


            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.     

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Noticing.... Seeing what we need to see and what we miss when we don't

 What we focus on in life matters. Here are some scriptural reminders that will help us see correctly.  https://youtu.be/Rn76tV0ZH8s    

Consider This.... Which Way Are You Leaning?

   When Ben Patterson agreed to join three friends climbing Mount Lyell, the highest point in Yosemite National Park, he did not realize what he was signing up for.  Early in the day, it became clear that he was completely unprepared for the task.  In an effort to keep up with his more experienced friends, Ben took a shortcut.  It did not occur to him that there might be a reason the others had not selected this route, but he soon found out why.  Ben became stuck on the glacier.  He could not move up, down or sideways and one wrong move would send him sliding down a forty-five-degree slope to the valley floor miles below.   That is when one of his friends came to the rescue. His buddy leaned over the edge and carved some footholds in the ice.  He told Ben to step to the first foothold and immediately swing his other foot to the second, then his buddy would pull him to safety.  Lastly, his friend gave him one more piece of advice....

Consider This: Press The Button!

  Consider This:  Press the Button! My favourite TV game show is Jeopardy.  I used to like it even more when my kids were younger, because I could easily beat them and look smart.  These days, after they have grown up and gone to university, it is much more difficult.  However, Jeopardy is still the only game show I will watch. In a book I read, a contestant who did very well on the show shared the secret to his success.  He said (and I am paraphrasing here), “You must press the button before you know the answer.  Everyone on Jeopardy is smart. Everyone knows the answer. The key to winning is to act.  You must jump in and press the button, assuming that your brain will catch up and supply the answer.  If you wait until you are sure, you will be too late!” Press the button! Too often, we hesitate, not because we do not know what to do, but because we do not want to do it.  Sometimes, we fail to act because we are not sure how the situatio...