How Are You Living?

Rev. R.G. Rowland, Jr.

11/11/20233 min read

“Your blood work looks suspicious.”

“There’s been an accident.”

“I hate to tell you, it is malignant.”

“We’ve done all we can do; it’s time to let him go.”

“It was a massive coronary.”

I’ve been a pastor for fifty-six years, long enough for me to know when someone ask me what I’m going to do today that my response is, “I really don’t know.” Many plans in those fifty-six years have changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye—calls, a text, someone driving up, have all changed my plans and someone else’s life.

We can’t go through life without plans and goals, but we should always be aware that our plans and goals in life are subject to change—sometimes suddenly. Sometimes the last time is the last time.

A cloud of depression can descend on us if we live our lives worrying over how or when our plans might change, or when life will take some unexpectedly horrid turn. On the other hand, if we live assuming that nothing will ever go wrong; it makes for a most difficult adjustment when it does.

“I can’t believe it; I just can’t believe it.”

“I never imagined such a thing would happen to us.”

“How did this happen; I can’t believe it.”

So how can we live a satisfactory and meaningful life while we have the understanding that our lives are always subject to change. Sometimes it’s a good change like when we meet someone special, or see or hear from and old and dear friend, or when a new baby comes into our family. And sometimes the change is heart breaking, or causes us great anxiety, and/or brings on a load of grief and loneliness.

How can we live with this tension between the plans we make, and the plans that change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye?

Let’s begin with the Psalmist:

“O come, let us worship and bow down,

let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice!”

We begin by seeking the guidance of the Lord…today. Today is the day to “listen to his voice.” The three building blocks of life, blocks laid on the solid foundation of Jesus the Christ (the Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords), faith, hope, and love, help us prepare for the plans of life, and the interrupted plans of life.

In the second Corinthian correspondence, Paul reminds us that inevitably, “We walk by faith.” For when it is all said and done, faith is what we have left. It is faith that will help us put one foot in front of the other and move forward. When adversity comes, and it will come, it is our faith in One greater than ourselves, our hope in his grace, and our love for him and his love for us that gives us the strength to go on, to move forward, to pick up the pieces and take one more step.

The wisdom writer, the Preacher, of Ecclesiastes puts it like this: “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful, but time and chance happen to them all.”

Why? Why is it the swiftest person doesn’t always win the race? Why is it the most powerful army doesn’t’ always win the battle? Why is it the most intelligent among us are not always the wealthiest?

Why? “For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.” (See Ecclesiastes 9:11-12.)

How then do we find the joy if we live with the cloud of a possible “calamity” falling on us? How do we pick up the pieces and move on after disaster strikes? Where do we find the meaning in life after our hearts are broken?

The author of Hebrews gives us a hint:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts…” (3:15 and 4:7)

Hear the word of the Lord. Build your life on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ using the building blocks of faith, hope, and love…today!

Some people assume nothing bad can happen to them.

Some people live as if they will never die.

“Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 14-15)

Live today. Live with joy.

Live…building your life on the solid foundation of Jesus the Christ using the building blocks of faith, hope, and love.

“Even youths will faint and be weary,

and the young will fall exhausted;