Dusty Trophies

I came across some trophies in an old box this week from the 1970’s; my how time quickly passes! One day long ago battles were fought and a trophy was given. And now; the roar of the crowd is long gone and the great prize is now stuck in an old box in the attic. My, how quickly the ‘glory’ has faded!

It amazes me, sometimes, how we spend our days; how we spend our lives. Let me quickly say that I think that we all need a good healthy dose of time spent enjoying activities that may not seem very important to others. Training to participate in a marathon may not make a difference to the rest of the world, but it can certainly add years to your life: both physically and psychologically. Or spending hours doing an activity such as making a puzzle, only to put it back into a box can have value if you are sharing it with a friend. Collecting leaves that will become dust in a few years adds value to those who spend time collecting them. You get my point.

What I am commenting on is that we work hard to get the prize only to find out that in time it is simply put on shelf or in an old box in the attic. We spend all of our time and energy striving for a "laurel wreath" that is only a vapor in light other things. 

The Apostle Paul in the Bible wrote that we should strive for laurel wreaths that have lasting purposes :   24 Do you not know that those running in a race all run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. 25 And everyone who strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Then those truly that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. 26 So then I run, not as if I were uncertain. And so I fight, not as one who beats the air. 27 But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest proclaiming to others I myself might be rejected. (1Corinthians 9:24-27 ) 

In fact what impresses me about Paul is that he lived his life on a quest to run a race that had a prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ:   7 But whatever things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ 9 and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death; 11 if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I am pressing on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7-14 ) 

They say that very few people on their death beds say; "I wish I had spent more time at the office". So, is what you are striving for today going to make a difference in 5 years? It’s not too late to change the road you are on.