The Urgency of the Present by Jill Carattini

Read 'A Slice of Infinity' each day and email Chad with your comments/experience/prayers etc. This ~5 minute recap, called 'COUGARS Daily' contains snippets from the previous day's A Slice of Infinity as well as comments from you.

- Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (Haggai 1:5-6)

- Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

- Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, (Haggai 2:15)

A Slice of Infinity snippets:
Coming out of a painful time of exile, the people (Israel) immediately set up an altar remembering the Lord. Compelled by a longing to exalt the God they came to see through blinding trouble of banishment, within a year, they had laid the foundations to rebuild the temple. But when they were ordered by the Persian court to stop building, understandably, they yielded to the command. And yet, long after the opposition had subsided, they continued in their hesitation. They had become indifferent to the task they had once started with enthusiasm. They had no will, courage, or interest to set their minds to build again. Whether out of complacency, fear, or comfort, in this place of the time being, they found themselves immobile. They wanted to finish the temple; they wanted to experience God and find God in his great sanctuary, but not yet.

Such are the ways I would rather not examine in myself. It often seems easier to avoid taking stock than to face the shelves of bankrupt longings, irrationalities, and empty motions. Yet, “we must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard," cautions the writer of Hebrews, "so that we do not drift away" (2:1).

Whether it is the unrecognized hope in material things, the looming certainties of fear, or the undiagnosed putting-off of certain questions, each is a sight barring our eyes from the present with towering mountains of the future. "What if I fail at that job?" "Once I have this, I will be happy." "I'll deal with that idea later." Through the prophet Haggai, God stirs us back to the urgency of the present, and the call to examine our hearts before the one with whom there is no hiding. "Now give careful thought to this from this day on," declares the LORD Almighty (2:15).

Now is when God calls. Now is when Christ carries our sorrows, or fears, or disappointments. Indeed, now is when we must respond with careful thought to our ways and careful attention to what we have heard. For God is here. Our stories may seem bound by daily pressures, fears, and longings, but our lives are woven together with the one who promises again and again: "Return to me, and I will return to you."