Seize the day - part 3

Sometimes it is hard to seize the day when you feel so horrible … so unappreciated … so beaten down … so discounted … taken for granted … over looked. At those moments it is good to hear what God has to say about you. In 1 Peter 2:9-10 speaks to this reality as that once you were nothing … a nobody … an outsider. There was a time when “no” defined you more than anything else … but now! I like whenever scripture includes a “but now” because it usually means that a major change has taken place.

“But now” mercy has come … God has claimed his own … mercy has been granted … and you are holy! That is a tremendous “but now” … out of darkness and nothingness we have emerged into God’s marvelous light. If God affirms us then who or what can deny that reality. If God is on our side then who or what can stand against us. Or as a little girl once said, “I’m somebody because God doesn’t make junk!” Amen, little sister, amen!

And yet, with that Divine affirmation fully embraced, we still have difficulty seizing the day … taking fully advantage of the opportunities that are offered to us. Maybe it would help to simply live in the moment … discarding the past and stop worrying about the future … and just affirm that for this single moment God loves you … stand there and give yourself a hug. We don’t hug ourselves enough. Some seldom, if ever, hugs themselves. Actually, we are trained from our earliest days that we really shouldn’t love ourselves. That is so sad, because if God loves us why shouldn’t we love ourselves … and if God loves us and we love ourselves … then we are really free to seize the day!

I love the cartoon character Snoopy, especially when he dances. He is so happy … so full of life and love that it just spills over capturing hold of his feet that he cannot help dancing. What would your friends and family think if God’s love simply capture your feet that your only response would be to dance? But, really, who cares! Seize the day and dance away … after all it is your life and what other people think really doesn’t matter all that much … now does it. Just remember that God has claimed you who was nothing and made you his own. “Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy!” Remember that Christ is the Lord of the Dance since he danced on his own grave and if he leads you in the dance then who has a right to criticize?

Seize the day – it is your life and it is your day – a gift of mercy and love!

Quote for today: An old man was asked what had robbed him of joy the most in his lifetime. He replied, "Things that never happened!" Someone has cited these three keys to happiness: 1)Fret not--He loves you (John 13:1), 2)Faint not--He holds you (Psalm 139:10), 3)Fear not--He keeps you (Psalm 121:5). Source Unknown.