Halfway through 2014...and a minute to pause

"I returned and saw under the sun that-- The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all." Ecclesiastes 9:11

I just realized, 2014 is half gone already. I feel it barely started and here we are at the beginning of July. Do you ever feel you "can't keep up?" I have felt that way ever since I was in my early twenties. Now the years roll by faster and faster, and each one blurs right into the next. I can't keep up.

The wisest man on earth, Solomon, tells us, no matter how many toys we collect, no matter how high up the ladder of success we crawl, no matter how much fame and fortune we amass, still,
"time and chance happen to them all." Kind of equalizes all of our playing fields, from the richest CEO to the poorest child lying in a refugee camp somewhere. We can't outwit the passing of time, or the day God has appointed for us to leave this earth.

And so, halfway through this year, I think to myself, am I going where I want to be going in this year 2014? What matters to me the most? I believe there is more waiting beyond this life. One day, which will seem like the blinking of an eye, I will stand in front of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and give account for the time He gave me here on earth.

If you ask my family, they will tell you I have a weakness for collecting books. It is evidenced in every room of my home. Yet, when I get right down to it, when am I finally going to have the time to sit down and read every one of them? Is this what I need to do, right here, right now, in light of the times? And so, I am slowly parting with some of them.

Eureka! I cannot do it all, I know that to be true. I am not the woman who can "bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan..." as the old perfume commercial goes. No, I am just me, with my many limitations. But I have the gift of this day, and how I choose to spend it is up to me.
I want to choose that one thing that is necessary, as all the distractions clamor for my attention:

"...one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Phil.3:12-13