LIVING IN A THROW-AWAY WORLD

When I was putting my joggers on this morning...my less than one year old joggers...my Slazenger joggers (bought because they were drastically reduced in price, NOT because I'm a name-brand junkie!), I noticed a hole in the top. You know what that means - I'll notice that hole every time I wear them now, and it'll seem bigger every time, too. I may even, one morning, put my toe right through the hole, accidentally of course...and that will be the end of my discounted, name-brand joggers. And let's not even discuss what's going to happen when it rains and I have to go walking!

Do you remember the days when you get more than a year's wear out of a pair of shoes? Or more than five years out of a washing machine, or a refrigerator? My mum had one of those agitator washing machines with the wringers on top for over 30 years. I remember the excitement of it after the copper boiler she used to use for doing the washing when I was a little girl. I know she still had the agitator one when my now adult children were in their early teens.

Oh, and what about the days when you could get more out of a printer than the duration of the ink cartridges? My printer developed a quirk in behaviour a few weeks ago - after every page it printed it would spit out a blank piece of paper, then refuse to spit out anything, declaring on its little display screen that there was a paper jam. Of course there was no paper jam, but I would still have to comply with the computerised demands by going through the motions of un-jamming this imaginary paper jam before it would print again...but only one sheet more before we danced the same dance again. It was a slow and painful way of printing even the few pages I needed. And now it has corrected itself and works as it should! I guess some mysteries are not meant to be solved. During the course of this idiosyncratic printer behaviour I found myself thinking; "Well, if it dies I'll just get another one!" The sad irony is that it would be cheaper to throw away this printer and purchase a new one, than to get it fixed. These days it's cheaper to buy a new printer when the ink runs out than buy new ink cartridges. Appalling, isn't it!

Oh, and don't get me started on the dramas I'm having with my mobile phone right now, and have had since I got it! It's currently not working, other than being able to be used to play music and see the time. So basically I'm paying a handsome monthly fee for a clock radio! Hmmm... *shakes head disapprovingly* The realisation for me right now is just how distanced I feel from everyone when my phone is...uhm, I mean was my primary, and often used, source of communication (and will be again, when it's fixed! - one more day to endure!), via calls, TEXT, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. AND I've realised also how much we all must (and I have done) take such things for granted these days. Now that I'm without it, I feel a little lost...I might as well be on another planet in terms of knowing how everyone is and what they're doing, even though there have been many times I've wanted to throw that stupid phone out the window!

We've become a very 'throw-away' world, haven't we? Things get outdated so fast, and there is always the temptation of something bigger and better, with more features that can do something new or amazing being dangled before us. Nothing is made with any semblance of quality - not even name-brand shoes. Nothing seems to last anymore...

...except Jesus Christ! A relationship with Jesus and the love He has for us is beyond the meagre limits of this world and our feeble ideas of time. ETERNITY is one word that is used so often in the Bible to express time and a life with Jesus Christ. FOREVER is another.

In the throw-away world, even people are too easily disgarded. How many marriages reach the ten year mark, let alone survive past that? "I will love you forever" - beautiful words until forever turns out to be only 'until you annoy me or make a mistake', or 'until someone better or more exciting comes along', or 'until I find myself or sort myself out'.

It's not like that with Jesus. He stays. Even when we get busy, or distracted, or lazy, or stupid...our Lord stays!

Jeremiah 1:5a says; "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart." These words were spoken to the prophet Jeremiah, by the Lord, when he was called by God, but they apply as much to you and I as to Jeremiah. Imagine the Lord speaking those words to you! He does, you know. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1:4; "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." Psalm 139:16b reveals; "All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."

*Before you were born...
*Before the creation of the world...
*Before one of them came to be...

Do you see a trend here? We've been on our Lord's mind for a long...Long....LONG time. He was thinking about us when He left the paradise of heaven and all His own Kingliness and came to earth. He was thinking of us as He grew into a man. He was thinking of us when He began His ministry. He was thinking of us when He suffered unbelievably at the hands of the soldiers, and when He carried His cross, and when He was nailed to that cross, and when He died in agony, in our place, on Golgotha. He was thinking about us and loving us before the world was even created, and still thinks about us today - NOW, as He sits at the right hand of His Father in heaven.

The world we live in might have a throw-away mentality, but Jesus Christ does not. Our value and worth to Him is immeasurable, so let us honour that by living according to His will and His Word in the time we have here on earth, so we are prepared when we go to be with Him, FOREVER in ETERNITY.

Let's pray...
Loving Saviour and King,
Thank You for all You have ever done for us, and for all You continue to do. We know Your dedication to each of us is spread wider and deeper than any of us realise or can fathom. We praise You as our Lord and King and Saviour, and long for the day when we dwell forever in Eternity with You. Strengthen us through Your love and guidance during our time here, however long or short that may be, and prepare our hearts and spirits for when You come to take us home. In Your mighty Name I ask these things, amen.