Just Around the Corner

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 15:51-58
     My son's favorite game on the Wii is Mario Karts.  I have to admit, I really enjoy it too.  The first couple times I played, I was a very bad driver.  The graphics of the game are so incredible, but because the game is only 2D, it was sometimes hard for my undiscerning eyes to separate the background from the actual course.  I drove off every bridge, crashed into every wall, fell into every body of water.  And then there are those blind curves.  You know, those curves that you can't see what is around the corner and smack into whatever ends up being around the bend.  Yeah, did that numerous times.  It would be easy to get frustrated and give up on the game.  Fortunately, I do have a bit of a competitive side, and it rises up and won't allow me to do that.  So although, I rarely ever finish in first place in these races, I don't always finish in last either.
    "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."  We often quote this verse to emphasize the importance of being faithful to a task.  But it is really important to read the verses beforehand.  There is a reason we can be steadfast, unmoving, and abounding.  It is because Christ will return.  Christ may come within the next few seconds, as I'm typing these words, and I want Him to find me hard at work, going about the Father's business.  He's coming very soon.  That is why every Bible verse I review with my kids, every prayer I offer for a loved one's salvation, every tract I give to the grocery store cashier, is urgent.  It is not in vain.  It may be the last time I get to do those things.  Christ's coming is like the blind curves.  I can't see around the corner, so I don't know when it will be, but everyday is a little closer to the time Jesus will come back for us.  It would be easy to get frustrated and give up.  I mean, really, there is a lot in the Christian life that is discouraging.  There are days, when I wonder, what's the point?  This morning I was feeling a bit like this.  I have felt like giving up this blog, on more than one occasion.  But I am not a quitter.  I'm amazed sometimes to see that someone in a different country has read something here.  I mean, that is astounding.  Now how much was read, I don't know.  How often they read I don't know.  For me, I have always benefitted from reading the Bible and then writing about what I've read.  I just get more from my devotions that way.  In the past, I have written them in a notebook, now in the electronic age, when I learned about blogging, I decided this might be the outlet for me.  I could give it up.  I could go back to spiral-bound pages.  But Christ's coming is just around the corner, and who knows if someone might happen upon these pages and find the Lord?  I'm not saying that has or ever will happen, but shouldn't we use every avenue possible to see people saved?  I think so.  It may be that someone puts a word in a search engine, and somehow this blog shows up.  So maybe someone just takes a peek.  Maybe they will peek at a page explaining how they can know Christ.  Isn't that why God leaves us here?  To be that witness?  I need to stay faithful to the things Christ has given me. Like a Mario Kart driver, I need to follow the course to the best of my capabilities, even though I may drive into a wall, fall off a bridge, submerge my vehicle in the CG lake.  Satan will put many pitfalls in our path.  We must do our best to avoid them, because Christ's coming may be just over the hill, and if I stop my work a little early, I may neglect to point someone to Him.  If today is my last day on this earth, this minute, this hour, what words can I leave behind to direct others to Him?  That is my whole life's purpose, and I want to be faithful to it until the trumpet sounds.