Expired Milk...

Expired Milk...gross huh? The question, have you ever gone to pour yourself a nice big glass of cold milk only to find, it pours out in chunks? Or worse you take a big drink and can taste the sour, nasty, stick to your tongue, chunky milk taste? You don't want to drink milk, along with other things, past the expiration date on the box. Almost every thing on this earth will one day be gone, and expired. Things like, my car, jewelry, house, my cell phone, and computers, nice furniture and other things I hold as valuable. Food and milk are not the only things with expiration dates!

"The only thing that does not expire on this earth is us. We don't have expiration dates, we don't have a shelf life, we have eternal life in Christ or eternal life seperated from Christ! We don't expire, ever. Life does not end here! How we spend our lives on this earth can make a difference for eternity. God has a plan for our life here and now. So instead of living like we have an expiration date, don't you think it's time to make an impact and work for things that will last forever?"

"What is going to last? God and people. That's it. Everything else turns into expired milk, rotten and sour."

This weekend I learned from a child. A now fourteen year old boy named Austin Gutwein who is the founder of Hoops of Hope, an organization that Austin, at the age of nine, created to help orphans in Africa! This kid is amazing. But what is funny about it is, as adults we think that kids should not be expected to be amazing. We don't think they can get it. They are only expected to go to school and make good grades and mind their manners. As Austin put it, "That is just staying out of trouble."

Most of what you read above is either paraphrased or a direct quote from Austin's book take your Best Shot. You can find the book on his website by clicking any of the links here on this page. It is a must read. It is for younger audience, but it is a must read for adults!

We seem to complicate things here on this earth as adult believers. We forget what we are living for. Are we really living for retirement? Are we really living to pay that mortgage? Are we really living to pay off that credit card from Christmas past? As strange as this may seem, when my mom passed away, I noticed something....she didn't take anything with her. She lie there so peacefully but Jesus only took her soul, everything else remained. Her clothes, her body, her house, car, jewelry, and credit card bills. She left everything. Only she was eternal...not all of her stuff.

To me it is easy. We should all ask this one question: Am I living for something that will last for eternity?

"Only you know the answer to that question. Everybody lives for something. And everybody is going to die someday. I think it's a tragedy that many people die without ever asking or answering for themselves if what they are living for will last. We only play the game once...the only things that matter when we head into eternity are the things we invested in that do not expire. God wants us to make a difference in our world- a difference that is going to last!"

I leave you with a great quote:
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." Leo Tolstoy