Time and urgency seem to be uniquely tied together…

If your essay isn’t due for another month… you’re not really sweating it yet. If your flight doesn’t leave for another week, you’re not even thinking of packing. If that camp or retreat you’re preaching isn’t for another 6 months, you’ve got lots of time to get ready for it.

When there’s lots of time, there’s little urgency.

Now, let’s flip the coin. That essay is due tonight at midnight, and you’re only half way done. The big exam is tomorrow, and you really wish you had’ve studied more to feel ready for it, so instead you’re CRAMMING. You want that birthday package to arrive on time to your sister, so you pay an extra $12.75 for the ‘RUSH’ delivery, which you wouldn’t have had to if you thought of it three days earlier. Can’t you just feel the pressure?

When there’s little time, there’s lots of urgency.

Let’s face it – unpreparedness stinks. It adds unnecessary pressure. It throws our life of kilter, and it COSTS us extra energy, time and money. If we keep putting off the important things, we end up being caught in a ‘too much to do, not enough time’ situation.

I’ve been thinking of all this, because last week, an incredible man of God passed away, and is now in the Presence of God for eternity.

Roosevelt Hunter was so many things to so many people. He was one of the greatest preacher’s anyone has ever heard. He was a dreamer. He was a mentor. He was a friend. He was a family man. In so many ways, he was a hero – which was affirmed by the fact that nearly a thousand people traveled to Florida to celebrate his life one more time at his funeral.

In his passing, you could say that he left a lot of things behind. A wife, and two children. A continent of churches. A contact list full of friends, and a quiver full of proteges. But I want to focus in one one of the most important things he left behind.

His example.

Roosevelt’s life truly embodied a life of FULLNESS. Every message in the pulpit. Every conversation. Every exchange. Every minute of every day seemed to be full of life, joy, purpose and authenticity.

He was never waiting around for an opportunity to make a difference. He was never waiting around for change. He became the change. He MADE a difference in every moment. He was a champion of the NOW.

And now that he has passed on to the next dimension, he leaves us behind with a powerful legacy to follow:

Tomorrow has no guarantees. Make a difference TODAY. Make your life count NOW. In all things. In all relationships. In all conversations. In all tasks. In all purposes. Though it may seem like we have a lifetime ahead of us, let us all forbid the urgency of eternity to escape our hearts… because we never really know how much time we have left.

Someone is counting on us. Somewhere. Somehow.

JJ.