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I don’t wanna go through the motions…

When I was growing up my family had a poster.

It was a picture my mom had made of a nice forest area, and next to it she wrote some song lyrics. She hung right at the bottom of the stairs, so every morning when I came down stairs I would read the lyrics of this song. It was from a 2008 song from Christian artist Matthew West called “The Motions.”

The lyrics went like this: 

So everyday I was confronted with this idea. Am I just going through the motions of life, or am a I really living it?

I had another CD I used to listen to as a child. It was a CD from the band Switchfoot, and it had this one song I can still remember. I never thought about it much as an 8 year old, but it still has stuck with me all these years later.

“This is your life, are you who you want to be, this is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be, when the world was younger.

My Life Countdown Clock

Last year, I downloaded this app.

It’s a countdown app. I set the date to January 19th (my birthday) 2083. According to science that is the approximate day when I expect to pass away. It shows how many days I have left to live. As of today it is 21131. I wanted to be reminded of just how fast life goes by — even if it is a bit morbid.

Make the most of your time

All three of these examples are expressions of what Paul states in Ephesians:

Paul here is urging us as Christians to live wisely. To be intentional with the little time we have left. 

Look, that does not mean we need to be productive with every moment we have. It is not shaming us for relaxing, taking some time to rest. 

But it does call us to be intentional with the time we have.

If we are going to rest, let us rest, work, work, and play, play.

In a world filled with so much busyness and so many distractions it can so easy to walk around mindlessly, following routine, never really thinking through how we are using our time. 

I know I too have been guilty of this too many times to count. And will unfortunately continue to be.

But if that is you today. Rushing off to whatever busy thing you have scheduled. I urge you to take a moment.

To take a breath.

To thank God for this very moment.

And intentionally and prayerfully go into whatever you are about to do.

Not just going through the motions – but giving it all to God.

Have a blessed day,

Aaron

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