Moving Too Fast

1 Corinthians 15:50-52 – I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (NIV)

I completed three levels of spreadsheet and database design in 2002, through continuing education at my local college. I am not all that quick at keyboarding, especially when it comes to navigating. A student next to me tried to be helpful by telling me to — or informing me I can — double click to open a file. Well, what if I don't want to double-click? What if I want to take all that time to wander off to the "Open Icon" instead? My finger is not as adapted as some to that precise double-click action, in which both clicks have to be so close together or it doesn't work. I examined my attitude and mood, my reaction to this helpful gesture. Why does everything have to be so fast? How much farther can we go? How much more can we demand of these bodies of ours?

My mind muses on this dilemma again as I struggle with quarter and half notes in choir, and flats that sound too flat for my taste. Yet I struggle to comply with a bodily reaction that says, "I can't keep up with this pace!" My reflexes and responses are less than sterling. I don't read music as much as guess at it.

I won't discuss changing lanes on the highway.

I was determined to make sense of this pattern, and, as I paid attention to it, the above Scripture came to me: "we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye". How have we all experienced "the twinkling of an eye" when Christ has healed us, saved us from accidents, delivered us from our own sad attitudes into the presence of God!

This Scripture gave me a new attitude toward double-clicking, and a renewed determination to nail down those notes. Whenever I address these issues now, I tackle them with the assurance of God's work within us "in the twinkling of an eye." Each of us can do the same.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for the grace to work in our fast-paced society in which small quick movements have very large impacts. Transform us continually "in the twinkling of an eye", as we await that glorious day, which Christ promised to us so long ago. Amen.

Forward this devotional     Share this devotional on Facebook     Like PresbyCan on Facebook