My husband loves to watch sports on TV. I’m home, sitting in my favorite chair with my laptop in my lap, and the TV is on, and the movement of the guys playing football are in my side vision. Lawrence is courteous and doesn’t mind watching with the volume on mute when he knows I’m working on my writings. He’s got his left eye on his computer, his right hand on his mouse, and his right eye on the TV, all the while snoring away!

I look up at the TV screen and see the intensity of the players and the coaches on the sidelines and the spectators in the stands, which are filled to the brim with people who’ve paid lots of money for their seats. I think of the time they each took to get there. I wonder why churches are not full like the stadiums are, and why people don’t sing songs of worship with the kind of intensity they have when they cheer or boo at the referees. I’ve seen games (on TV) when it’s snowing and raining, and they still play in those conditions, and think about some people who won’t go to church when it’s cold or rainy. I think of how much money people pay for their tickets to watch a game, and how much money the players get paid, and wonder why people don’t want to give 10 cents out of each dollar they earn to tithe to their church.

And I wonder about the new commitments I’ve made as we start out this New Year. They could be life changing for me, and I’m serious about them and want to keep them, but they require some changes in my time management, and strong discipline. It’s really difficult to fit all the things I want to do into the hours of the day that I have to work with. I have new goals, but my primary goal still is and must continue to be what matters most to me (and to God), and that is securing a spot for me in heaven, and knowing I’ve done what I could to help my children, grandchildren, and others do the same. Have we done all we can? What else can we do?

I look at the members of the football team and know they must surely put a lot of their time, energy, and thoughts into their games, or they couldn’t be in the pros. I watch the pacing coaches, knowing how much time they must have put into coaching their team, and I wonder how people can balance their time so they can focus on God and their eternal life, and still enjoy their lives while on earth doing something they love and excel in!

It is a constant struggle, wouldn’t you say, trying to set aside time for God to renew our minds (according to Romans 12:2) keeping in mind that we want to check in with the Holy Spirit throughout the day for guidance of what we do and say, and, if we have a business, invest time into our business, whether it be in purchasing, planning, selling, banking, or moving stock from the car to the shelves, or the shelves into boxes to ship, etc. Then those of us who work 8 to 5 jobs have to focus on that, so we only have evening time, which goes fast if you go home and cook (which I do), then eat, clean up, and flop into our favorite chair.

How do people excel in the areas they love? By devoting every spare minute of their time into it, and then some! They stay up late, dream about it, and maybe even get up before dawn to travel or learn more about it in books, on the internet, or in class rooms. Do we exert that much time and energy into getting to know God and His precious Son, Jesus Christ? Do we dream about Him or heaven? Do we get up early and stay up late reading and studying His Word?

I just wonder why we don’t have as much zeal when it comes to securing a spot for us in heaven. Is it because it’s something we can’t see? Could it be that the reason we don’t seek God with all our strength and mind is because we can’t see Him? Why don’t we read the bible to our kids? I didn’t do it with my kids, but I wish I had! My parents didn’t do it, but I wish they had! Now that I’m reading it for myself, I wish I had read it to my kids, and I wish I could read it to others, too! God’s Word is so wonderful, and it’s so true and it’s so full of Wisdom and knowledge because it is His Word! It’s Him speaking! It’s Him interacting with other people who have lived before us! It’s Him teaching us, warning us, and reminding us that He is God and there is no other God but Him!

“18For thus says the Lord--Who created the heavens, God Himself, Who formed the earth and made it, Who established it and did not create it to be a worthless waste; He formed it to be inhabited--I am the Lord, and there is no one else.

19I have not spoken in secret, in a corner of the land of darkness; I did not call the descendants of Jacob [to a fruitless service], saying, Seek Me for nothing [but I promised them a just reward]. I, the Lord, speak righteousness (the truth--trustworthy, straightforward correspondence between deeds and words); I declare things that are right.

20Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about [in religious processions or into battle] their wooden idols and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.

21Declare and bring forward your strong arguments [for praying to gods that cannot save]; yes, take counsel together. Who announced this [the rise of Cyrus and his conquests] beforehand (long ago)? [What god] declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a rigidly and uncompromisingly just and righteous God and Savior; there is none besides Me.

22Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

23I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear [allegiance].

24Only in the Lord shall one say, I have righteousness (salvation and victory) and strength [to achieve]. To Him shall all come who were incensed against Him, and they shall be ashamed.” Isaiah 45:18-24