Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. It wasn’t very cold on the front porch this morning, and I could have lingered well past filling my lungs with fresh air, but I have a great view from inside, too, so I savored it in a warm house with a hot cup of coffee instead. The moon was still visible as the sun was coming up this morning, and all I had to do was turn my head from one direction to the other to take in the beauty of both. One is a sign of a new day, and the other a sign of the end of the night….neither of them ever sleeps. It isn’t possible to see them both at the same time – at least not with the human eye. It takes effort to look at what’s ahead, and it takes effort to look at what’s behind…and it always comes down to choice. Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is promised to no one, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to spend too much time focused on either one of them. Today I choose NOT to obsess over the future or to dwell on the past…today I’ll be Living for today. Isn’t that the way you see your Journey of Life, too?

Human beings are, by far, the biggest “wasters” of all God’s Creation. We waste money. We waste food. We waste water. We waste energy. We waste love. The list could go on and on forever of all the things we waste. But the most significant things we waste come down to TIME and OPPORTUNITY. We waste time because we’ve convinced ourselves that there is no end to the time we have. We waste opportunities because we’ve convinced ourselves that there will always be another chance. Instead of valuing this new day as if it is the ONLY one we have, we waste time and opportunity because we’re too busy dreaming about the future or dwelling on the past. IMAGINE what the world would look like if everybody lived for today! I think there would be a roar that could be heard all across the globe as people simultaneously said things like “I LOVE YOU!” – “PLEASE FORGIVE ME!,” or “DO YOU KNOW JESUS?”. It would be the most amazing sound on this side of Heaven, that’s for sure! Instead, we waste our days and nights because we’re so convinced there will be plenty of time and opportunity later. But, what if there isn’t?

If today is our last day and we fail to say “I love you” or “Forgive me,” it won’t be the end of the world. The ones we needed to say those things to probably already know we loved them, and once we pass away, most of the time they forgive (or forget) us altogether. But what happens when we waste Time and Opportunity to share the Good News, the one thing that matters more than everything else, and the ONLY everlasting thing there is? What if YOU were the one God was calling upon to Share the Good News with a certain lost person, BUT you ignored that Golden Opportunity because you were too busy lying to yourself about always having time for a 2nd chance? We (born-again believers) don’t have to pay the price for our wrongs because Jesus died to pay the price instead. We (born-again believers) won’t be “judged” for all the bad things we did because His blood covers them all. But how will it feel when we face our Maker on Judgment Day? How will it feel to have Him show us ALL the time and opportunities we wasted? What will it be like to have Him remind us of ALL those times we could have (and should have) shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a lost person, but we put it off instead because we were too busy dreaming about tomorrow or dwelling on the past? Ouch.

I could see both the sun and the moon in the sky this morning for just a few minutes before yesterday was completely gone, and today showed up. I’ve chosen to LIVE today and won’t be wasting time or opportunity, that’s for sure. God forgive me if I ever overlook a suffering soul…if I ever make excuses for why I don’t love them enough to share the Gospel before it’s too late…if I lose my footing and get stuck dreaming about tomorrow or obsessing over the past when He has a Master Plan for my Life and TODAY is all I have.

How about you?