Note from Pastor Andy

I wanted to share a part of the "Note from Pastor Andy" email for this week. Andy is the senior pastor at Irving Bible Church, the church I went to when I lived in the Dallas area. It is worth reading and thinking about. Enjoy!


My Dear Friends,

“Don’t take life for granted. Live in the moment. Be grateful for little things. Choose joy. Today is the day you’re alive, so live!”

Those thoughts were rattling through my brain as I cut through the 34 degree wind on a motorcycle ride home from Shreveport on Sunday afternoon. My dad is recuperating in the hospital from an assortment of ills, and I’d taken a quick run over to see him and mom on Saturday afternoon.

While I sat with Dad Saturday evening, he was telling stories about his ministry as a Presbyterian pastor which was often turbulent and filled with difficulties. Even so, he gazed off into a corner of room 451 at Willis-Knighton Hospital and said, “I never realized how happy I was in those years. . .”

Funny how when we’re in the middle of things, we tend to see only the hard things. It’s not until later when we no longer can do what we so cavalierly took for granted that we see the sheer delight that could have been ours if only we were awake to more than just the problems. I think most people spend the bulk of their years trying to “get through” stuff—diapers and car seats, grad school, paying their dues, conflicts, you name it (there’s ALWAYS something to get through!) — and forgetting to live gratefully in the process.

I look back on 2008 and see that I’ve done exactly that. . . it’s almost as if my life last year is a dream and not a true memory. With the cold wind freezing my fingers, I asked God to help me not live through 2009 that way. I don't want to awaken in a hospital room someday to the realization that I was really happy before, but never made the effort to realize it until it was too late!

Today is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

In the Moment, and Grateful,

Pastor Andy
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I appreciate Andy's words and I pray that I will live in the joy of each day and not wait until life is almost over to see that there was so much joy and happiness in each day that I missed.

Lord, make me aware and grateful for all the wonderful things and moments in every day and help me to stop sweating the small stuff that gets me sidetracked when it doesn't really matter in light of eternity.