Encouragement

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With All Thy Getting...

The forces against life create a major misconception among the human race. The created misconception is that we have an abundance of time....

Yesterday I read the parable of the Ten virgins from Matthew 25:1-13. The parable parallels Ten virgins, five of whom were wise and chaste. The other five were chaste, but lacked wisdom.

We can make those parallels in every walk of life. The five virgins walking in wisdom took the time to prepare for the bridegroom before his arrival thus they were chosen for marriage. The five virgins who walked in wisdom understood the 5 P’s of success: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. The five virgins lacking wisdom knew to remain chaste, but tried to ready themselves at the last minute.
They ran out of time and missed the very wedding they were saving themselves for.

The parable leads us back to the misconception of having an abundance of time... Many of us go through life, putting off today what we can do tomorrow believing we have an abundance of time. This is not always the case. Every morning that we awaken from a good nights sleep we find ourselves older and one day less the rest of our lives.

Today... i walked into my home at 10:00pm for the first time since i left it at 7:55am headed to work. Arriving at my job at 8:28a, i worked until 7:25pm. i then drove to pick up my daughter for dinner. We ate, had a wonderful time, and then i returned home, after being away 14 hours. As i walked in i realized... in the course of 14 hours, i had only spent 2 of those hours with someone near and dear to my heart. i held conversations with those i considered close, but i only
spent a mere 2 hours in the physical presence of someone i loved.

Contrarily i spent 12 hours with rats, in a race that i didn’t like, but signed up for... unaware of the wear and tear the race would put on my spirit, my mind, my flesh, my heart, my dreams,
my goals, my vision, my ... life. i remember entering the race, i remember the first time i switched teams. i remember when i realized i was in a race that was designed for me to lose. i remember realizing the rule book i studied was designed for me to fail. i remember the first time i wanted to get out
of the race. i remember the first time i jumped the track... and out of perceived obligation, i jumped back in...with yet another new team.

i remember thinking... i’m getting out of this race, as soon as the time is right. What i didn’t realize then, and know now, is that the right time was when the revelation came to me. However i lacked understanding and continued to operate under the misconception of having more time...
and now... nearly 19 years later... i still want out, because i’m still in.. What i know now is that if i don’t leave soon, all of my time will be swallowed up by a race i don’t want to run. All of my energies will have been spent on a race i can’t win.

Right now i am operating as the virgins without wisdom. My diligence is my chaste, but i’ve not properly prepared to operate in the diligence and perseverance to which i’ve been blessed with. What’s needed in the event that i’ve lost five hundred ninety-nine million one-hundred and eighty-four
thousand... I mean can i make up the nine million, nine hundred eigty-six thousand and four hundred? What do i have to show for the one hundred sixty-six thousand, four hundred and
forty? What possible transpired those last six thousand nine hundred and thirty-five? What i’m really saying is...can i get that 19 back? Cause those are the years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.. that i had time to prepare. Yet i still find myself racing.. due to my believing there was an abundance of time for me to prepared for getting off the track.

So how do i get off the track sooner than never? Clearly i need a new strategy. Matthew 25:1-13 states that five wise virgins got off the track. i believe their wisdom helped them to develop a better strategy than the other five. i also believe that if i am to get off the track, i too, require a better strategy.

Two years ago i left a job i’d worked for nine years. i left for severaly reasons. One being that i had vowed only to work there for five years, thus my exit was four years past due. Two my EVP was wicked, and i had grown weary of fighting the good fight with a fool. Three...i worked with a woman who shared how she started that job and didn’t even realize nineteen years had
flown by and she was still there. i heard that story and thought - oh my... that couldn’t be me.

Today i walked into my home, silently looking around and thinking of the people i had met since moving into the building six months ago. Some proclaimed they’d lived in that building 10 years, others 12 years, a few had been there 20 years, and one or two had been there 30 years. Again i thought - oh my.. that can’t be me.

So i decided.. to get a new strategy because i refused to be in the company of the five virgins who were still in the race... Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all my getting I’ll get understanding... this is my new strategy. What does wisdom provide me?

If i forsake not wisdom, wisdom will preserve me
If i love wisdom, wisdom will keep me
If i exalt wisdom, wisdom will promote me
If i embrace wisdom, wisdom will honor me, give me an ornament of grace, and a crown of glory
Wisdom.. will deliver me...

Wisdom... keeps me tracking the very time i had been deceived into believing i had an abundance of on the other side of tomorrow.
Wisdom... preserves my thought so that i make proper use of the time i’m keeping in order to know exactly when and where i ought to be to execute that very next step in my exit from the race.
And Wisdom... provides the most gracious good-byes to the rats so that i might encourage as opposed to offending them once i am promoted from their presence.

Then.. when i am delivered and decorated in grace and honor standing with the five wise virgins, blinged out in a new crown of glory; I can look back at those still on the track exclaiming - PRAISE GOD... THAT IS NOT ME

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