Are you paying attention?

What I am about to say won’t sit very well with you. In fact I have a feeling that if I had been in the same room as you, you would have possibly thrown something at me or in the process feel very offended. Yet, somehow all this time no one could muster enough courage to say this to you, but found creative ways to talk about it behind your back.

I know currently you are trying to shed weight and finding it very hard. Another is looking at the fragments left of what once was a seemingly perfect relationship and trying to make sense of what went horribly wrong. Just further down the line someone is trying to avoid calls, because of an enormous debt incurred and now the throbbing headaches are a reminder of the bad choices made at a particular moment. There is a parent wondering how and where things went wrong with a child who seemed to be on a successful path and now stand facing the abyss. I do not want you to get me wrong and think that my response to you is harsh, cold and that it is my intention to stab you even deeper. My only aim is to get you to wake up and understand that you were not paying attention.

Okay, so you didn’t hear that the first time. I said you were not paying closely attention. You see there is very little in life which happens without something that gives away the imminent storm. I know this seems almost too easy to say and from your perspective it sounds all like hogwash. The reality is that the kilos you are trying to shed did not merely find its way there overnight. It came as a result of… as a result of you not paying attention.

Right now many people have just come from holiday and returned to work. And yet while they spent many hours in the sun and blew hundreds, even thousands of rand, they are already planning the next holiday; thinking of moments of sheer pleasure. Yet, after all is said and done very few of those individuals consider planning for their retirement or saving for an unexpected eventuality. You see what I mean? They are not paying attention. The reality is that there is this path that seems right unto human kind. The end thereof unfortunately is the consequence of ill choices and a lifetime of not paying closely attention.

There are those who live surrounded by beauty, are blessed beyond measure and yet they have never summited Table Mountain or even visited the southern tip of Africa. Yet, there are moments when it begs them to venture much further than their concrete jungle and every time the sun caresses their skin it is a call to come out to play. Yet, one day the yearning to experience that which has been so freely given will be too far to reach, because somehow when it mattered most, they were not paying attention.

Pay attention. Don’t allow life to pass you by and you are too busy to appreciate God’s finest gifts to you each day. The objective is not to ensure that you are not distracted. The imperative of life is to ensure that you are paying attention.

A new direction

If I were to ask you about the path that you have followed that brought you to this path I am certain that you would speak of the slippery slopes that you have had to brave to live another day. There is always a story of a narrow escape, moments of endearment and past experiences which left you scarred and possibly traumatised. Yet, irrespective the hills that have been witness the injustices of your past; the path you have once travelled beckons you to take a new direction. The problem with life is not that it has become predictable - it is that you have not discerned the need to change your direction.

Somehow the only way you will get to the place prepared for you, which has a reservation sign for you in your name, is when you understand that you can no longer continue a journey in the company of others who have not enriched your life. There are some things which have turned your life into a hoarder of memories which are stale and moldy and which screams for change and desires a life well-spent on the new. You don’t seem to understand that pitiful is not a word which should be used in the same breath as your name, because you have been created to be much more than you are right now. Nothing can be sadder than to see good potential wasted on a path which ultimately will lead you nowhere slowly.

May I suggest to you that you were not created so that you wait around for this path to be named after you? There is already a place which has your name on it, but it waits at the end of this journey, not at your mid-point. You have to move on, but you have to abandon a path where you are able to name the things you have encountered along the way. Your new direction could be the prospect of a new and exciting career, the fulfilment to bring joy to someone else by availing yourself to volunteer; it could be to meet new friends and people along a new intersection of life or to break tradition in your family by doing something never attempted by your kindred folk. You can feel the tugging; the pulling of a desire so profound that you know causes your heart wanting to explode, but the knowledge that this decision is much greater than a new haircut. The satisfaction will be greater than the known, because the experience is riddled in the unknown. And somehow while you have heard my voice speaking to you thus far, you are beginning to hear the voice of One so great, and ultimately the One who called you to be His own.