Urgent!

by Meridith Borta
Elementary Principal

With Christmas sneaking up on us and the hustle and bustle of the season beginning to swirl out of control around us, you can literally feel the sense of urgency in the people around you. In the stores, shoppers are searching anxiously for the perfect gift for their loved ones while others scurry frantically about gathering food and other trimmings for their holiday parties. These observations got me thinking about how often we are led by that sense of urgency—by something that just has to be done right now.

(Now if you have been reading my past blogs, you know that I have written about STRESS, HURRYING and WORRYING, and TIME. You may be wondering if this blog entry is going to be much the same. While this holiday season definitely has a place in each of those blogs, don’t worry, this is something new.)

First, what should we really have a sense of urgency about? We rush and rush trying to find gifts that our loved ones may or may not even need, when as Christians we hold the key to life! We have the good news of a Savior that should create in us such a sense of urgency to tell others, that we can hardly contain our excitement (like the anticipation we feel when we know someone is going to just love the gift they are unwrapping.)

Why should we feel such a sense of urgency to share?

James 4:14 (ESV) states,  “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

Psalm 39:5 "You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath."

Proverbs 27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."

Knowing that we are not guaranteed tomorrow, how important it is that we tell people the good news while we (and they) still have breath. What greater sense of urgency should there be than to tell people about our indescribable Jesus.  While we may not know how God will move in the lives of the people we share with, we DO know that we cannot stay quiet. We can tell dying people how to have life!  That is something that calls us to act.

If we truly lived like tomorrow was not guaranteed, we would surely live our lives proclaiming God’s love to the people around us. This holiday, as you feel yourself getting swept into the hustle and bustle of all of the urgent things you need to accomplish, remember the urgency of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to those around you. After all, Jesus IS what Christmas is all about.