“We must work the works of Him who sent Me, as long as it is day; night is coming, when no man can work.”

(Jesus explaining His healing of the blind man) John 9:40,

 New American Standard Bible

 


Now Is the Time

 

The old hymn, Work for the night is coming and the day is done, often plays out in my mind. Several days ago, these words brought back memories of past experiences.

            Many years ago, while driving back to Houston after being in Goodman for Christmas, my car began slowing down and finally stopped just outside of Layfette, Louisiana about half way into the trip. Realizing that I had for weeks neglected the warning signs there was a problem with the car, dread played out in my head as I turned off the motor and sought help. After the vehicle was fixed, and I finally got back to Houston, this experience, in my mind, became another delightful adventure of my youth.

            About ten years later, I still hadn’t learned my lesson that cars had to be maintained, so when the change oil light came on my thoughts were: Tomorrow, too much to do, oh, that will take money and I’m so busy going and blowing that I don’t have time to take care of finances; I’m really too busy to worry about this, but it will get done, tomorrow.

            After leaving the grocery store about 8:30 one night, I turned the key, but the car was dead. As in the old hymn, the day was done and night had come.  Instead of paying somewhere around $30.00 to get the oil changed, I paid $900 to get a burned-out motor fixed, an expensive lesson.

Thought: In my book, Chasing a Family Secret, Tamara stared into space and in an almost faraway voice said, “Yeah, we don’t always have tomorrow or even the next five minutes.” The truth of this came back to haunt me this morning. While eating breakfast, I sensed the working of the Holy Spirit as stirring words filled my mind for this part of the blog post. Instead of stopping what I was doing, and writing the thoughts I decided that could wait until after my morning ritual was completed. Guess what. When I finally sat to write this portion, the earlier beautiful and flowing words were gone—the night had come.

 


Comments

  1. Lola McIntoshMarch 5, 2021 at 9:21 AM

    You sound like a recording in my head...not the events but the words. I can hear this in my head" for when night cometh no man can work". Being brought up Baptist, certain parts of scriptures are burnt (dialect pronunciation) into my brain. I totally understand what the elders were trying to tell me that went right over my head, but as I got older began to make perfect sense. Oh the jopys of age and wisdom! Hugs and thanks for sharing.

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