Live While You’re Alive

What are your future plans? Many of us plan out our lives into major chapters—I’m going to graduate, start my career, get married, have kids, buy a house, retire, and then I’ll travel and see the world. Or then I’ll do everything on my bucket list. Or then I’ll have time to spend with family and enjoying hobbies.

Having a plan is a good thing, but I want to encourage you to live while you’re alive. We are not supposed to spend the majority of our life getting ready to enjoy the minority of it. I want to share a parable I read recently.

An American investment banker took a vacation to Mexico and was enjoying some time fishing. He noticed a small boat docking, where a single local man unloaded his catch for the day—three good looking fish. The banker, who spoke decent Spanish, asked the fisherman how long it took him to catch those fish. “Only a little while,” the man answered. The banker was puzzled; it was early, and he caught a few fish in a short time, and yet he was calling it a day. Why didn’t he spend the whole day catching even more fish? The Mexican told him he caught enough to take care of his family for the day and to meet his immediate needs.

The American asked what he does with the rest of his time. “I sleep in, spend some time fishing, I take a siesta with my wife, I play the guitar, I play with my children, and hang out with my friends.” The banker couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had an MBA and felt like he should pass on some free advice. “Sir, you should spend more time fishing. Then you can use the extra money to buy a larger boat, then hire a few employees. Then you can afford to buy several boats and hire more people until you have an entire fleet. Instead of selling fish to the middleman, you can sell them directly to the cannery. You’d have to leave this village, of course, and move into the city.”

“Senior,” asked the fisherman, “how long will all this take?” “Oh, fifteen to twenty years. But then you can retire. Sell your enterprise to the highest bidder and walk away.” The fisherman asked what he would do after that.

The American said, “You can sleep in, spend some time fishing, take a siesta with your wife, play they guitar, and hang out with your children and friends.”

Unfortunately that is how many of us spend our lives. Rather than enjoying the small pleasures in life and just being together, we spend time separated because of the countless hours it takes to either plan for the future or fund our lifestyle. Please do not misunderstand me: I am not suggesting that we be irresponsible, and I am not saying that it is wrong to work. But sometimes we need to re-evaluate what we call the necessities. Don’t give your best years to your company; give them to your family. No one on their deathbed regrets spending too much time with their loved ones, but wasting so much time away from them.

“Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

James 4:13-14

To Save a Life

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he...

All Things To All Men

One of our favorite verses to use in our evangelism methods is where Paul said that he “becomes all things to all men” so that he might “by all means save some (I Corinthians 9:22).” This is certainly a good idea if we keep it in its proper context and application. For example, I remember a time in high school where I knew a kid that loved skateboarding. Being the chicken that I am, I was never a skateboarder. All he would talk about was skating, and I knew none of his lingo. But to help develop a relationship with him (he was new to our church and didn’t know many people), I brushed up on my skating lingo so I could ask if he had done any sick ollies lately (impressed?). This would be like Paul saying “to the skateboarder, I became a skateboarder.” This is effective and necessary. But then there are the people that use this verse to justify doing sinful things in the name of evangelism. The first one that comes to mind is about drinking. Some people will go into the bars to evan...

What is a Curse Word?

I know. Stupid question, right? But lately I have heard Christians begin to debate what actually makes a word a curse word. Since the Bible never says, “Thou shalt not say the ‘s’ word,” how do we know that a word is bad? Because of this I have heard Christians justify cursing. The Bible gives a broad command for Christians to adhere to: let no corrupt word come out of your mouth (Ephesians 4:29). The word corrupt means rotten; therefore, we should never say a rotten word, whether it is on the list of curse words or not. First, we have to realize that there are curse words. On the night of Jesus’ arrest Peter was found guilty of using one himself. Matthew 26:74 tells us that when Peter denied knowing Jesus that he began “to curse and to swear.” This verse shows that there are curse words, and that they are wrong to use. I’m sure whatever words Peter said were not the same curse words that we have in our culture today. Here is the point: a curse word (or rotten word) is any wo...

Tommy Mann

Search This Blog