The Remnants of our Time

In my quiet time this week, I came across a prayer from the late Henri Nouwen’s book, A Cry for Mercy. The prayer is too long to include in this writing, but it talks about Nouwen’s struggle with the gulf that he felt existed between the ideal of his walk with God and the reality of his walk with God. He mentions the books he has written, the classes he has taught, the books he has read about the spiritual life—he then says, “Still, as impressed as I am, I am more impressed by the enormous abyss between my insights and my life.”

Those words have resonated within me this week. As a new Christian, I regularly listened to Dr. J. Vernon McGhee on the radio. One of his signature phrases was, “Where the rubber meets the road.” He used this phrase to mostly describe the Christian life and what the Bible had to say concerning our application of the principles found within it. I believe that one of the struggle points in everyone’s Christian walk occurs “Where the rubber meets the road.” It’s one thing for us to read the Bible and other great books that discuss the spiritual life, but it is another thing for us to actively put into practice those things that the Bible teaches as well as those taught by other great men and women of the faith.

Sometimes, it is just plain hard to make time to read the Bible. Sometimes it is difficult to get a time for prayer and meditation squeezed into our 24 hour day. It becomes even harder, to cut out time to get involved with servant evangelism. The day only has so many hours and there are so many claims upon each of the precious minutes within any of those hours. We must sleep. We must eat. Most of us must work. We must take time for family. We must take time for ourselves. We must…. We Must… WE MUST…make time for God. Sometimes, God gets the time that is left over. We all know, he deserves the first fruits of our time—not the remnants.