They did nothing

You can drive around town and see many houses that are sitting unoccupied. Many of these houses look like all the other houses and if didn’t look in the windows and see they were empty, you wouldn’t know it. But some really jump out at you because of the level of degradation that has taken place. The yards look terrible. The weeds are overgrown. Maybe a window shutter is hanging crooked. These are the kind that no one has to tell you that they are abandoned. It’s obvious.

Did someone tear these houses apart? Did someone go during the night and adjust the shutter to hang crooked? No. It just slowly fell apart over time. Why? Because the owner of the house did nothing.

It is the same in life with our minds, our bodies and our souls. Every day is a chance to learn, grow, succeed, change, expand, hone, sharpen. Every activity is chosen to make something different. Did you ever get up and say, “I hope today is boring and that nothing I do today makes a difference”? No. We hope that what we do makes a difference in our lives or in someone else’s life. We go to church to be changed inside or to give worship to God. We go to school to learn and grow partly for knowledge, partly for simple completion of what is expected, or simply to pad our resume for a better job or better pay. But no matter what or why you do it, you are doing it in hopes of some change. The problem is that we walk away from an activity and start thinking about the next one and we don’t let the change happen. We hear a great sermon and then at lunch, the meaningfulness you felt seems to slip away. We study for a test and then let the answers drift to the back of our minds where they get locked away and slowly forgotton. Life goes on and then we forget to let change come even though we made the effort to go seek it out. The problem is that simple change doesn’t occur until you act on it. You mind sees it, hears it, and thinks it’s a good idea. But our habits take over and “normal” life carries us away from the dream that for a moment was reality.

The only bad day you could ever have is one where you do nothing. And after a while, your house will show it. Let’s make a difference today in our own lives or in someone else’s life by acting on those good ideas and dreams. When you realize that there is something in your life that you should do and somehow, you just know in your gut and in your heart that it’s good for you, then go do it. It may not work like you think, but at least you will know. This will start a process of learning about faith and who you are inside that will help you reach the heights of success.