Saved From Such Men

When I first starting my career as a flight engineer for the Air Force, I was dead set on being the best the service had ever seen. I studied night and day and finished the program to fully qualified in about 8 months from the time I finished school in Oklahoma. While not a record, it was ahead of my contemporaries. I did not stop there, next was my quest to become an instructor then finally a flight examiner.

I was fortunate enough to have several great mentors along the way. They all saw my potential and willingly took time to council me even though I may not have wanted their help. Those talks did have impact in my later years in the service. I can still hear one Chief say, “We are here today and gone tomorrow, when you think you’re indispensable, walk down to the bay and pull a bucket of water out of it and see how much difference it makes.” Those were and still are sobering words!

As my life moved on from the military to life as a minister and business owner, my priorities changed dramatically. The things most precious to me are my walk with the Lord and my relationship with my family. As my days on this earth grow fewer, I’m realizing that those 2 things matter more than anything else.

Is it time for an evaluation of your priorities in life? Take a look around you and see what matters, you may be surprised at what you find.

Blessings

Saved From Such Men
by Os Hillman

“O Lord, by Your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life….” – Psalm 17:14

Whenever I travel over the ocean, I am always reminded of the seemingly insignificant time we have on this earth. I often imagine dropping a glass of water out the window of the jet into the huge body of water below. The Lord then reminds me that this is how my life is compared to eternity – a mere drop in the ocean.

Yet, every day millions of people will go to work seeking to gain that elusive thing called success. The rewards of this life continue to provide the incentive for 60-hour weeks or the extra weekend away from the family. Sometimes we get entrenched in the message of the world. This message is an appealing, seductive call to sell out eternity for the temporal.

As a Christian businessman, I fell for this for many years until the Lord allowed me to wake up. It took some severe wake-up calls, but they did their job. I’m so grateful the Lord cares enough to give us these wake-up calls. He knows what real life is about. We think we know what it is, only to learn once again that real life is only in what is built on eternity. How does this verse line up with where you are today? Are you building around a world whose reward is in this lifetime, or an eternal one? Do those with whom you associate live in such a way that they demonstrate their reward is not concerning this life? Jesus said to seek first His Kingdom and all these things will be added. Amen.