Later Than You Realize (10/28/2024)

This morning, at dawn, the sandhill cranes came to glean the neighbor’s garden of anything edible. I watched them so eloquently harvest what remained. And I wondered to myself if they realized how late in the season it was. Shouldn’t they be southbound by now? Does the animal kingdom suffer from temptations like we humans that cause them to choose poorly?

Choice is a gift from our LORD. We call it free will. Maturity helps us to realize that it isn’t just the freedom to choose but also the responsibility to choose well, to choose wisely, to choose the path of love every time. Few know better than me how tempting life can be. I’ve frittered away more than one hour and eaten more than my recommended daily allowances of not so nutritious food. I could be the poster child for the “Choose Wisely” campaign alerting others to the dangers of poor choices. But I’m still trying to do better. That is my mantra.

Seriously, though, our choices matter most, especially in the little moments when we’re called to choose kindness over cruelty in response to hateful actions in others, to choose giving over grabbing more in response to what we ourselves have received, to choose prayer over partying on Sunday morning when the Packers play at noon. Moment to moment we are given choices, most of which we respond to intuitively. Is our intuition guided by our love of the LORD and the LORD’s desire that we love Him and one another?

One of our greatest obstacles to “getting it right” is the clock in our heads that tell us how much time we have to turn things around. People behave differently when they realize their time is running out. Don’t believe me? Watch an NFL game and see what is possible in the last minute of a game that evaded the players for 59 minutes earlier.

One of my favorite parables in Luke is that of the Prodigal Son. While I am moved greatly by the Father’s mercy and love, it is the elder son’s response to the younger’s return and the father’s generosity that always causes me pause. The older son had the benefit of the Father’s love all along. Maybe it wasn’t wrapped in a fancy feast, but it nonetheless real. And I tell myself every time I read it “Don’t fritter away the blessings.”

Time is a gift from our loving and ever-present LORD. But it doesn’t come with guarantees on volume. We may have less time than we imagined. So, it serves us well to get our ducks in a row earlier than later. And it serves us well to recognize the LORD’s power and presence at work in our world and lives now. It may be just what we need to keep us on track, on time and responsible.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.