2009...

Anther year has passed us by and I am still trying to catch up. Where on earth did 2008 go?? I am still surprised that 2009 is already here. In sunday school class this morning, the leader asked us all to share what we were anticipating in 2009. Most people couldn't really come up with anything. I came up with something, but afterwards I was kind of like...um, is that really all I look forward to in this coming year? I said that what I was looking forward to was that at the end of this year, I will only have a semester of college left. While that is exciting for me, I realize now how anxious that makes me sound. How much it makes me sound like I am not looking forward to this year, only to it being done and over with. That is not exactly true. While I do not have any huge plans for this year yet, I should still be looking forward to it right? It is a brand new year with countless new opportunities and experiences.

One lady in class this morning made a good point--what if this year Christ returned for us? What if this is the year of the Lord's return? While we can't know for sure, it puts a whole different perspective on this year, does it not? Suddenly, all these thoughts pop into my head about changing the way I am living to be ready for the Lord's coming. Yet these thoughts only pop into my head at the beginning of a new year because a lady said something about it in sunday school class?? That's not right.

I should be living every day as if today was the day of the Lord's return. Yet all too often I find myself thinking that I can do that later, that I have plenty of time. But I have no clue when Jesus will come back; no one except God knows the day or hour or year. And it is meant to be that way. And because of that, I should--we all should--be living each and every day as if it were our last on this earth, should we not? I feel very convicted.