My tanks were full as I lifted off from the Redlands airport. I had more than enough fuel to carry me home to Pacific Union College. But something strange happened after crossing the Mohave Desert. I was a comfortable three thousand feet above the Tehachapi Mountains as I sought to slide over the top and drop down into California’s central valley. However, I wasn’t making any forward progress. As I looked down, not only were cars passing me, but I continued to be over the same pile of rocks. My airspeed indicator read 140 mph but when I tuned into the weather report I quickly learned that I was heading into an over 100 mph head wind. I wasn’t going anywhere. I was just burning fuel and I needed to stop in Bakersfield for a fill-up if I was going to get home.
I have seen many college students not really going anywhere. They were just burning up tuition. It seemed they were in college merely because they didn’t know where else to be. No matter what we are doing we need to be making progress. It can be a career. It can be mental growth. It can be building better relationships. It can be developing character. Whatever it is we should not just burn up life. The days and years are too precious to let slip by.
Being a Christian is not just about living forever. It is about growth. Stagnation just doesn’t hack it. Stagnation is a waste of brain power. Stagnation is a waste of life. God’s gift of eternity is for us to become more and more with each passing century. Note it is not to have more and more but to BE more and more.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 5, 2013
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org