Running Red Lights

It was your typical day. My kiddo and I were bebopping around town like we just didn’t care. Laughter, random jokes no one else would ever understand, and loud jazz were fluttering around like captured butterflies and apparently I was so distracted my internal time clock got the countdown wrong and I blazed through a stoplight that turned from yellow to red about 5 seconds too soon. My backseat driver didn’t notice, there were no cops around, and no cars trying to utilize the intersections, so I got off about as easy as I might have. I muttered the phrase every person that’s ever run a red light is required to say (I think it’s actually a law…), “I thought I had more time!”

Now, if this were a movie, the audio would die and time would freeze around me. God would descend from heaven and impart this deep revelation to me over a cup of coffee, and hours would pass in an instant before I woke to find myself hurtling along in the car again. This wasn’t a movie though, it was real life, and the revelation received was profoundly simple -

“You All Do.”

We all do. We all think that we have more time.

Our world is an intersection. The light is yellow...we see it. We see the signs that the light is about to turn red. If you read your Bible and believe it, you are most likely aware of the prophecies surrounding “the end times.” It tells us that there will be natural disasters, wars, rumors of wars, wickedness, followers of Christ being martyred, and so on. Does any of that sound familiar? Figured it would…

If you’ve spent much time as a Christian, you’ve likely heard sermons preached about it all and you’ve probably given Revelation at least a glance or two. We know that the light is yellow but I’m afraid that all too frequently we think we have more time. If you are not a Christian, it doesn't take much to realize that things seem to be spiraling downward. Something has to change!

We think we have more time to follow Christ’s Biblical command to make disciples (someone that follows Christ's teachings to love the sick, the poor, and the hurting). We think we have more time to start treating our families the way we should. We think we have more time to start loving everyone we meet. We think we have more time to fall madly in love with our Creator, more time to pick up those spiritual disciplines that we’ve heard about since our childhood...but we don’t.

Sure, revival is coming. It’s been prophesied and the waters are troubled. Miracles are happening in churches the world over, lives are being changed, the lost are being saved, and the prodigals are retracing their steps. But, if we aren’t careful, we will think we have more time for that too. We will think we have more time to get involved, more time to help out, more time to enjoy life a little bit longer...but we don’t.

One of these days, the light is going to turn red. One second, we'll be making our way through life like we always have. The next instant we'll be through the intersection of life and eternity. I'd be willing to guess that based on our final destination we will either be basking in the light and love of our Creator, or we'll be crying out, "I thought I had more time!"

I don't want to want more time. I want to finish this race like an Olympic sprinter that presses through that finish line and falls to the ground completely spent - having given EVERYTHING to Him. Having SPENT, having POURED OUT my life in an effort to please my Friend, my Redeemer, my Father.

I’m calling out to my creatives everywhere. Get off your seat and go make a difference today. You don’t have time to perfect that technique, get picked up by that publisher or agent, or get a million likes on the social media platform of your choice. You have a gift of creativity that has been injected into your DNA by the Master Creative and it was granted you for a purpose. To make the most of this time. To change your world in a radical way that only you have the capacity for. Go BE THE CHANGE - You don’t have time to let someone else do it…