Not a Moment to Waste

May has flown by, and I’ve not stopped to blog! I’ve been spending time with out-of-state family, working on my book and adjusting to my new schedule as part-time office girl and part-time writer.

I’ve also been reading the book of 1 Samuel. This time, it wasn’t the stories of the main characters like Samuel and David that stood out. It was those of the “supporting characters,” like Hannah and Abigail. These people seem to have lived on the sidelines of the main story the writer is telling, and often I feel like one of them. It’s easy to feel insignificant when I consider the huge issues at stake in our world and country, in the kingdom of God.

But I learned that the lives of these people with seemingly less crucial stories were deeply important in the bigger picture of God’s plan. It’s a plan they didn’t always see fully, but the moment-by-moment choices they made determined the significance of their stories.

Jonathan was one of them. We might think he lived in David’s shadow. But Jonathan faithfully lived the life God gave him, in the moment right in front of him. He didn’t waste any time. He chose the most important thing right then, whether it was attacking the Philistines or protecting David.

The last time the friends saw each other, Jonathan encouraged David and reaffirmed God’s promise: “Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you” (1 Samuel 23:17).

Jonathan thought he would see the day of David’s crowning—and live the rest of his life supporting the king. He had no idea that he would die before that vision came to fruition. His choices and actions in those ordinary, day-to-day moments became, instead, his main story. They were an integral part of David’s story, and years later, of his son’s.

And today, they have become an important part of yours and mine, something he never foresaw. No matter what we think God has for us in the future, we have no idea if we’ll live long enough to get there. It’s up to us to discern how to spend each moment we do have, present tense, because God surely has significant plans for each one of them.