Living with One Foot Raised

Photo credit: Okinawa Soba

I get into slumps.  I lose sight of my calling.  I take it all for granted at times.  I get distracted.  I take my eyes off the Cross.

And then the verses hit this stone cold heart and I am revived.

My life...

It's a mist.  Here for a little while and soon to vanish.  I am transient.  My days are a handbreath.  A mere breath.  I'm a phantom.  I will leave it ALL behind. {Psalm 39:4-6, James 4:14}

Forgive me Lord.

Help me to...
Live like I believe this.
Seek You like I believe this.
Love like I believe this.
Serve like I believe this.
Sacrifice comfort and wealth like I believe this.

My days are numbered.  Help me to make the most of them for your glory.  Awaken me and help me do all things with one foot raised.

Friends - for a sermon on this very thing, click here, look for the following and click the download button:
Living With One Foot Raised
Series: 1 Corinthians
Speaker: Larry Lazarus
Sermon Date: 10/24/2010
Passage: 1 Cor. 7:25-31

This is the poem at the end of the sermon:

 Young man, young woman, go to school, study hard, prepare yourself for fifty or more years in a productive and exciting career. But do it with one foot raised!

Let all of us diligently labor at our place of business. Honor our employers by giving them a good day's labor for a day's wage. But always work with one foot raised!

By all means, get married. Enjoy the delight of romantic affections. Devote yourself to your spouse, yet do it with one foot raised!

Be quick to educate your children. Prepare them for life. Raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but always with one foot raised!

Study Greek and Hebrew and Latin! But study with one foot raised!

Celebrate life with your friends over a good steak and your beverage of choice. But eat and drink with one foot raised!

Weep at the grave site of a child. Mourn at the loss of a friend. But may it always be with one foot raised!

Read a book. Write a book. But read and write with one foot raised!

Cheer for your favorite football team and celebrate wildly every victory. But do it with one foot raised!

Labor to enact legislation to improve life in your city, your state, your country, but always with one foot raised!

Plant a garden. Plant a church. Open a savings account. Purchase a thirty-year certificate of deposit. Invest in a stock. But do it all in anticipation and heightened expectancy of the life to come.  Do it all with one foot raised!