There’s something about the last day of something that seems to make us humans want to “make it count.” Whether it’s the end of an experience or a trip, the end of time with family, or like today, the end of a year, there’s something about “the end” that brings urgency and excitement as well as reflection on what has been, and perhaps, what could have been.
I’m not really one for new year’s resolutions, but as this inevitable reflection occurs near the end of a year, I’ve realized how much more I desire to live each day with the urgency of the “last days”. Whether it’s in sharing my faith, repairing relationships, how I spend my time, or simply how much I laugh and find joy in each day, I desire to not merely “get through” this life but to truly live!
I’ve been reading lately a little bit in Genesis and in the last couple of chapters I read I noticed a really neat phrase said of two men: Noah and Enoch. It is first seen in chapter 5 which is a geneology of sorts. God’s going through listing all of the generations from Adam to Noah.
* All the days Adam lived were 930 years, and then he died.
* Seth lived… 912 years, and he died.
* Enosh lived … 905 years, and he died.
* Kenan lived… 910 years, and he died
* Mahalalel lived … 895 years, and he died.
* Jared lived… 962 years, and he died.
It’s all very repetitive but then suddenly when we get to Enoch something changes:
* Enoch walked with God… 365 years… and he was not, for God took him.
Every paragraph, except the one about Enoch simply uses the word “lived”. What I love here is that through His word, God is making a pretty clear distinction between merely “living” and “walking with God.”
We see this phrase again in the life of Noah in Chapter 6. God is in the midst of regretting that he even made human kind because of how wicked they were. He talks about how it “grieves his heart” (6:6) And then suddenly we see this:
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of The Lord… Noah walked with God.” (6:8-9)
I don’t know exactly what the difference is between “living” and “walking with God” but I’ve seen glimpses of that in my life and as I head into 2013 I desire to discover more and more of Him and His will for me each day … to live every day in that urgency and delight of “the last day”… to seek after him with all that I am and to truly… walk with God.
joyfullyblessedblog.com 