No time to lose
Here is a “Short Story” that I came across and I thought that it was well worth sharing it with you all out there as there is so much to think about and a lot of “Soul Searching” in this fictitious situation, so how would you react if you were that person on the wrong side of the camera?
Quote; “He stared blankly into the camera. “It was awful!” We knew it was big, but no one expected the storm to stall and pour down six inches in six hours! A wall of water came rushing through our neighbourhood, and drowned the whole family next door. We would’ve all drowned, too, if we hadn’t seen it coming and had our boat ready for escape.”
The local reporter inquired if he had personally known his neighbour. “Well, I always hollered hello across the fence when she was outside, and she would wave. But she was blind you know, and we only talked a few times. Her daughter dropped off those three grandbabies at her home several months ago. It’s such a shame they all died.”
Off camera, the reporter asked the man why he hadn’t informed his neighbour of the imminent danger, since he knew she was blind. Defensively, he answered, “Who knew it was going to hit so fast? I didn’t want to run over there like an alarmist. I’m sensitive about other people’s privacy. Folks don’t appreciate intruders, you know.”
Incensed, the reporter barely controlled herself until she returned to the van. Driving back to the station with the crew, she unleashed her anger, “How heartless he was not to warn his blind neighbour! That poor woman and her grandkids didn’t have a chance. Can you believe he didn’t tell her because he was afraid of looking stupid or bothering her? That guy’s a deacon at my cousin’s Church! What kind of Christian wouldn’t reach out to his blind neighbour and offer safety in his boat? He had time – he should have realized disaster was coming? It was sudden, but it wasn’t unexpected.”
She sat there in stunned silence as her words hit home. She, too, was a Christian. Her friendly relationship with her neighbours was casual, but she knew them well enough to recognize they didn’t know the Lord. Spiritually blind, they were unaware of the spiritual storm brewing. But out of personal concern that they might think her a zealot, or one of those “intrusive” people, she’s shared nothing about her lifeboat – about Jesus Christ. Wasn’t she equally guilty of neglecting her Christian duty as the poor deacon she’d interviewed?
I hope the message of my fictional account resonates with you as much as it does with me. When we see clouds banking up in the sky, we know a storm is coming. Based on current events and the prophecies of Revelation 13-18, we recognize a spiritual storm is on the horizon. We must warn others around us that time is running out. Let us not be guilty of neglecting our Christian duty. Let’s purpose in our hearts to reach out today; warning others and offering the peace and safety found in the “Life Boat Jesus Christ.” Time is short – there is no time to lose!” By Shelley Quinn.
All of us who are “Believers in Jesus Christ,” have our “Marching Orders” as found in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.”
The pertinent question that needs to be asked is; “But do we actually respond to them?” Our man in this story had failed to get even as far as the fence right beside him to warn or to witness to his neighbour, but did he actually even get around to his own “Family” or “Extended Family,” or did “the cares of this life just squeeze him into its mould” as JB Phillips translated. {Romans 12:2} We all seem to be “chasing our tails” as it were, spinning and spinning in ever decreasing circles like a “blow fly in a bottle,” until we just tip right over and have achieved not a whole lot, lots of effort, lots of noise but not a lot of productivity.
We have the Parable of the Talents as found in Matthew 25:14-31, or the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids as found in Matthew 25:1-13, or this admonition from Matthew 25:32-46 about the results of our Activity or Inactivity in our daily life and walk, and a whole lot of people wished that they had walked a different path and lived life very differently, but now it is way too late, the evidence was in that they failed to apply themselves and they are now cast out and the Kingdom, and Eternal Life is not theirs as they came up short in their Personal Life and in their not warning of those round about them.
While we have currently some peaceable time on our hands, let us each resolve to sort out our own lives, get our priorities the right way round and Eternity at the top of the list, then family and then community; that list of Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” This is an ever increasing expanse of moving forwards and outwards that is never to stop until the work is over and Jesus Christ comes so soon to reward everyone as their works have been.
Dear Reader; Will you like me resolve right now to start on a different path, a Jesus Path where we actually live the life moment by moment and to follow the Holy Spirits promptings and share the hope that is within us.
