Dashes

I'm sure many of you have heard of the adage regarding the dates on a tombstone--it's not the dates that are important, but the dash that separates them. The dash is the days we have lived--and how we have lived them. That is what people will remember.

In the message today, Pastor Guy introduced a new dash--

Awake---Asleep

And a new challenge that goes along with that dash--

How am I going to live my dash today?

This is a confession. Some days, I can be very undisciplined. There are so many options.

Should I...
Wash a load of clothes?
Spend a little extra time with my Bible study?
Call a friend I haven't talked to in awhile?
Try to connect in conversation with one of my kids?
Figure out supper now, or later?
Go visit my mom and dad?
Organize the junk bin?

And then-- (this is another confession) I get so overwhelmed and confused, that I do nothing productive.

Too many choices, so I do nothing.

That's when I want God to send me an email, write me a note in the sky--any kind of communication just to give me direction for my next move.

But the problem with not doing anything--is that God just wants me to keep moving--while in constant communication with Him. It's like He is telling me, "Just do the NEXT thing--and then I will guide you to the NEXT thing."

I found this poem--

Do it immediately, do it with prayer;
Do it reliantly, casting all care;
Do it with reverence, tracing His hand
Who placed it before thee with earnest command.
Stayed on Omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,
Leave all results, do the next thing.

So today--and tomorrow I want to make that time period, you know, the one between AWAKE and ASLEEP filled with God's NEXT THING.