No matter where you are, the fireworks show will look a little something like this: small fireworks with magnificent ones mixed in, a little patriotic music playing in the background, family and loved ones all around, and maybe also mosquitoes, lightening bugs, blankets, lawn chairs, cold drinks, applause and laughter. Then, the finale, where they blow up the biggest Chinese powder tubes that they have saved for the end. One after another lights up the sky and the crowd "oohs" and "awes". For several minutes the loud the explosions and color cause everyone to stop and be inspired by the last amazing display.
Every year, I catch myself waiting for the finale.
Since I never know exactly how long the show is going to last, after about 5 minutes, I begin thinking, "is this the start of the finale?". When it isn't, I wait a little longer and then I say, "Ooh, maybe this one is starting the finale". I think what ends up happening is that I spend at least 50% of the show waiting for the finale....not because I want it to be over, but because I know how great the finale will be.
I have great visions of sitting in rocking chairs with my husband when we retire. (At the lake house that I dream about). I will have just pulled cookies out of the oven and we will be waiting for the precious grandchildren (from the lovely Christian families that I dream about our daughters having). I will have earlier in the week served a great dinner to sweet friends (from all of the fantastic relationships that I built during my life). I may have just gotten off of the phone from a publisher (that wanted to bind and sell the stuff that God puts in my mind and on my heart).
I will be in the middle of the finale of my life, "oohing" and "awing" about all of the blessings that God has allowed us to have. But, if I am not careful, I think that I will miss the entire show because I was looking so forward to the finale. Or worse yet:
The finale may not look anything like I imagined, because I was always more concerned with the finished product than I was with the steps it takes to get there.
The other day, I bought a new clock for the kitchen and I wanted to hang it close to the edge of the wall. If I had waited for Tim to come home, he would have used a stud finder and a level. He would have gotten a pencil to make marks and a ruler to make everything even. Instead, I grabbed a hammer and a couple of pretty large nails and just started pounding into the wall. I hit a stud on one side and then the other side was too low. I moved that nail, then tried to just hammer the other nail into the stud all the way and hammer another nail a little lower. In my excitement to hang up the clock and have the perfect display, I semi-destroyed that portion of the wall. The final product looks really good, but if the clock is removed, the wall underneath is a mess.
There really are no easy shortcuts. If you want something done right, you have to do it right every step of the way.
If you want a perfect marriage, you have to work to make it perfect. It has to be priority...not just you both doing your thing and thinking that God's just going to bless it because you profess to have a Christian marriage. You actually have to put yourself aside sometime and actually care more about your spouse than you do yourself. You have to pray and entreat God to intervene and fill you minute by minute with His patience and wisdom.
If you want the reward of Godly children, you have to teach them about Jesus and model God's love in the home. You can't just be a professing Christian parent that goes to church once a week and hangs stuff you get from Mardel up on your wall. You have to put yourself aside and spend the time and energy it takes raise children in the Lord. You have to study the Bible so that you can teach them the Bible. They won't "catch" it from you like they catch the flu.....
If you want to be a good friend, you have to do the things that good friends do. You need to care day to day, return calls, pray with them and show concern even when it is not easy. You can't just be an efficient friend, a friendly person when you run into them. You have to actually reach out and sacrifice a little and dig deep. It is hard to be a really good friend. I am challenged in this area, and I am realizing everyday, how important it is that I teach our daughters how to be a good friend, too.
If you want to do a "big thing" for God, do the little things with the most zeal. Can He trust you with the big things if He can't trust you to do all of the little things that he has put on your heart to do?
If we are not lighting fuses along the way, how will we ever make it to a spectacular finale. Afterall, the firework show is not about the 5 minute finale, it is about every single match that strikes to light every singe fuse to set off every single firework.
We have to stop waiting for the finale and just start lighting the fuses of the items before us right now.
The disciples were notorious for waiting for the finale. Jesus chided them often, because they were so worried about the finale. In their defense, what they were waiting for was really cool. In fact, they were waiting for the finale that we are still waiting for....the finale of all finales!! When Jesus Christ reigns in full glory, Satan and all enemies are cast away forever, full victory is gained and we reign for eternity with Him.
They had been learning, growing and walking with Christ for three years. They were persecuted and despised by many. They left everything and sacrificed to be his disciples. At the end of the three years, He would leave them. They would be the same men with the same circumstances, but they would have the Holy Spirit to guide and empower them. With the exception of John, all of their lives would end with people killing them because of their affiliation with Christ.
Throughout his ministry, the disciples seemed preoccupied with the end or about their ultimate role. While the end is the reason and the motivation for the daily steps in faith, we must focus on the steps needed to get there.
Jesus would switch their focus from the far off events to the events before them for that very day.
In one incident recounted in Mark 9, they had just witnessed the many miracles and were walking into another town with Jesus. He was warning them again that he was going to be killed. As they were walking and listening to his teaching, a couple of them started arguing about who was the greatest (this bickering is also recorded in Matthew and Luke, too). It's as if they were all walking together and two of them were trying to figure out who the big honcho of the group was. Jesus was listening to them, but didn't say a word. When they got to Capernaum, they went inside a house to rest. Jesus challenged them on what they had been discussing, they said nothing in reply. He gathered them all and taught a lesson in humility and servanthood and encouraged them to be like the little children.
"If anyone would be the first, he must be last of all and servant of all"- Mark 9:3
In a similar discussion later in Mark 10, Jesus again told them that he would be killed. James and John pulled Jesus aside and had the gall to ask him if they could sit next to him in heaven. Basically telling him, we know that you are going to die and reign from a throne in heaven....can we sit by your side? The others were appalled by this question, but surely they had all had similar thoughts....they just never asked. Jesus gathered them again and taught them about humility and servanthood. He did have a plan for them to all side by his side in the kingdom (Luke 22:28-30)....but they weren't to concern themselves with that.
" Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many".- Mark 10:43
While it is natural for people to try to see the big picture, Jesus was telling them to not worry about the big picture, just do the little things and walk daily step by step, serving and dying to self.
Don't just focus on the end, but focus on the daily decisions that will lead you to the end you desire.
When the time came for Jesus to leave the earth and return to heaven, he had a fantastic final encounter with his disciples (Acts 1). He gave them instructions on what to do next and they knew that his time with them was drawing to an end. They brought up the question of the big picture again. They asked him, "Is this the time that you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?". In other words, "Is the big finale for which we have all been waiting?" Everything was going to bewrapped up in a big neat package and they were ready for it!
Jesus's last words to them before He ascended into heaven, were, "It is not for you to know time or seasons....but you will be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit has come upon you". Basically He told them not to worry about anything except being His witnesses and getting to work. The end is in God's hands and He is in control....just go do what I have told you to do. Do it every day and do it in my power. Then they watched Him go up and disappear. Standing there with their jaws on the floor and their eyes on the skies, two angels came and said quit standing there and get moving!
It is not about how it all ends, or the big finale, it's about the little pieces all long the way.
You've heard this quote:
"Life's what happens when you are busy making other plans." It was in a John Lennon song, and was around before that. There is so much truth in that. We all know this...how life is short and time is fleeting...blah, blah, blah. But it's true.
"Blink and they are gone"- True
"One day, you will look up and it will all be over"- True
"Don't wish away a single day"- True
"Stop and smell the roses"- True
"No man ever said on his deathbed, 'I wish I had spent more time at the office"- True
In this digital, social media age, most of us-especially our children- spend more time in everyone else's moments than we do in our own, with all of the reality shows, fb statuses, tweets and IG updates. Being in everyone else's business is taking us out of our own.
Start serving and loving and do it day by day by day. Start enjoying each little moment and event and do it day by day by day. Quit waiting for the finale.
Don't miss the whole show because you were longing for the end. See the thing about finales is, when they do come, the show is over.
