One short moment, one flicker of light, a few short breaths, and we’re gone. Gone into eternity. It’s sobering to realize how much depends on these few moments, how much of the future is suspended on the present, always standing on the edge of time, never knowing when it will stop for us.

Don’t Waste your Life

So many teenagers have no concept of life, of the eternal consequences of their choices. I stand at the window and see so many of my age group entirely desensitized, numbed, unrealizing, and uncaring of their future.

Why? Why? Why do we want to waste our life?... this life which isn’t ours at all. We want to step out and claim we are our own, but God tells us the opposite. He lays his hand on our shoulder and says, “You, you are not your own.” And then he bends down close and looks us straight in the eyes and adds, “You, You! Were bought with a price.” We are His! We are not our own. We cannot do whatever we want.

And yet, in an almost painful sense, we can. He has entrusted us with it all. He does not always stand in our way when we reject his purchase. Satan has sold his lie to the whole world. In the place of Stewards we have become thieves. What hope is there for us then? None, nothing but grace, nothing but faith, faith that God can change us from a thief to a servant, from a sinner to a saint, from old to new. Faith in His crimson blood that can wash us white as snow, faith in His salvation, that salvation which takes us back… as His own.

His own… And now he asks us to serve Him, to be a faithful steward of our lives. And there’s so much that entails. There are so many areas where our stewardship is illustrated. It shows in what we spend our time doing, it shows in how we talk, it shows in how we live, most of all… it shows in where we put our devotion. Ultimately our heart loyalty is shown in every aspect of our life.

Keep thy Heart

Long ago, a wise King of Israel wrote these words, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The first word is loaded with so much meaning. Keep, guard, protect… like the watchman over the city, like the gate keeper over the gate, like a mother over her child, like a soldier over his life. “Guard it!” “Fight for it.” “Do battle!” But never be found asleep with your sword uselessly lying at your side, never, not even for a moment. For at that instant, the enemy shall fall upon you.

Solomon was dead serious, as a king, he knew all about diligent and slothful gatekeepers. He knew about those who did not stand guard like they ought. He also knew about the heroic sentries who devoted all their energies to watching, spying, guarding, protecting his city, his throne. When he said ‘all’ he meant ‘all’, in fact, the Hebrew word is even stronger, ‘the whole, in every sense, in every way’... be diligent.

‘For out of it are the issues of life.’ That one phrase could be the subject of a sermon. Is it possible that our heart devotion, who we serve… can change us, can affect us so completely. Is it possible that what we do, what we are, what we say, what we think, and how we live is dictated by where our heart is?

Indeed! And this is where Satan targets us directly. He wants us to put our heart devotion into anything, anything but God. He would rather see it focused on a movie star, on a car, on fleshly desires, on anything, anywhere, anyone but God. Why? Satan wants your life to be wasted. Don’t kid yourself. He is in a moment-by-moment battle for your devotion, your joy, and your loyalty.

The Other David

A few months ago, my very namesake discovered me. Of the very few David Boskovic’s in the world (As far as I know they all still fit on one hand.) one discovered me online. Oh the stark contrast in our lives, oh how he felt the difference. He blogged about me, writing words that reflected the pain he felt, too vulgar to remember.

We are both teens, both young, both with a life in front of us, but one of us is wasting it. In the depth of drugs, street life, sexual sin, vulgar living, he discovered me, and dumped on me his load of anger. How could another David Boskovic exist other than himself, why did he have to be a religious fanatic… a God worshipper, some type of person who wrote about that Jesus guy. Impossible! I must be out to ruin him. I wrote a short comment in reply, and I pray that God may use me to reach him someday. I’m sure we’ll meet again someday, maybe someday when God has prepared his heart.

Until then, I’ll keep praying.

My Generation

When I see what my generation is doing with their time, it hurts. The same problem has been around forever, but in the last century it has expanded to grand proportions. Life is being wasted, so many lives, wasted on pleasure, wasted in the face of drugs, wasted in a life of self-centered pleasure, worst of all, wasted away from God. I ask why, but then my heart cries out, because I know why. They cry, because they have no idea why, no idea what they’re doing. Some live a life of proud success, but they live it alone, they live it wasted. All find themselves something else to live for, somebody else to serve, but they all waste their life. Others end their life by themselves, in a wasted ruin, because they took life alone. They lived for something else, somebody else. They died the same way they lived… wasted. I search my own life, and I realize how easy it is to waste it. I realize that I must say, “But for the grace of God, go I.”

And it’s that grace of God that we are ultimately given stewardship of. Our ultimate task is to live for God’s glory, by his all-sustaining grace. Our ultimate task is to show others God’s mercy in our life, to show, to tell, to explain that any other way is a waste of life. Any other loyalty is a counterfeit loyalty. Any other pleasure is a forgery. Any other path leads down. Who shall tell them?

A steward of grace.