Monday Morning Manna: Living and Rejoicing in the Moment

I am preparing to speak to another group of Senior Adults. There was a day when most of my preparation time was devoted to young adults – college students, seminary students, young congregations, etc. With the passing of time comes the changing of the audiences. I still speak to younger groups, but increasingly the invitations are to share with my own age group, and older. I’m not complaining. I still have audiences, the joy of preparation, and the satisfaction of presentation. From group to group, the truth principles are the same, but the illustrations must be adjusted. I remember the church that had three Sunday morning services – the first was a traditional service (I was one of the younger persons present), the second was a blended service, and the third was a contemporary service (which I think is a Greek word meaning loud and repetitive). I used an illustration of the S&H Green Stamp book to explain redemption. It worked well in the early service, but as the morning went on, I had to do more and more explaining, to more and more, blank faces. I used to quote a little poem when teaching my seminary class on church growth evangelism – “Methods are many, principles few. Methods often change, principles never do.” So we live in the present, learning from, but not living in the past, looking, but not longing for the future. The native Indian tribe known as the Inuit, had a saying, “Yesterday is ashes. Tomorrow is green wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.” God said it this way in Isaiah 43:18-19, “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.” So, like the Psalmist, live and rejoice in the moment. “This is the day the LORD has made . . . rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is the WestCoast Baptist Association’s Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.