Good Monday Morning, Church Family and Friends,
A famous hymn which I grew up singing in church was written by Isaac Watts and was entitled, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” One of the stanzas of this admired hymn begins with a striking thought: “Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all who breathe away.” That verse is true if you weigh it against our own life experience. Time does seem to have the character of an ever-rolling stream, flowing at a relentless pace. Maybe this is why there are so many references in literature to the “river of time.”
In 1836, a messenger left an abandoned church mission in southwest Texas. He skirted through 100 yards of almost certain death and rode away into the darkness. The messenger had been sent to find help for 187 men who had converted the unused mission into a fort. Outside the fort stood an army of 3,000 men determined to crush all resistance within the walls of the mission. The plea of the messenger was urgent. The men inside the Alamo were doomed unless help was sent. But the commander of the garrison who received the messenger’s plea for help was torn with indecision. For two days his army was immobile. Finally, he detached a regiment; but the commander’s decision was too late. The fate of the Alamo was sealed. Time decided what one man couldn’t decide for himself.
That story reveals a timeless truth. Days come to us one at a time, and each of them presents opportunities for decision. If we fail to make a choice, the passing of that day will make it for us. John R. Mott once said, “Time is the only possession we have which we cannot replace. Wealth can be replaced. Even our health in many instances can be regained. But lost time can never be recalled.”
The harvests of tomorrow are dependent upon the seeds sown today. Maybe this is the reason the ancient psalmist penned an important prayer: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). The psalmist knew that the river never waits. What we fail to decide for ourselves, time will decide for us.
Stephen Grellet once wrote, “I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
We only go around once, and the river never waits,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
