I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (NIV)

The pendulum swings. It travels to the right and the gleeful rise and the joyful sing. There is accomplishment in the days ahead. There is promise. There are relationships that reconcile and sickness healed. The smiles abound and there is plenty to await. Good things. New things. The optimism of a newer days.

Then back it comes. The arc of the path of a swinging pendulum. We hold on to optimism but our grasp slips and on our downward trajectory we go. Someone is angry, our life is less exciting. Time is slowing to a crawl as pessimism pervades our mind. It is too hard to hold the weight of the pendulum on the side of optimism. The weight of life is too much. So we fall.

God planned this for us. He does not expect us to see through the lens of happiness every day. How shall we learn? His wisdom falls upon the ears that will hear with humility not the ears that are hearing the gleeful, proud sound of optimistic laughter. Yes, His wisdom needs to come upon we of a bigger perspective. You and I see heaven. We are co-heirs inheriting a place at the ultimate banquet of all good. We will be perfected, judged, and commended for all we have done in this life. Importantly our time of the back-swing of the pendulum will certainly be mentioned at  the Seat of Mercy.

We shall endure the back-swing : No, we shall prosper in the back-swing times. Think of the difference between endure and prosper. I would rather prosper. These times remind us that prayer is necessary. Let us realign ourselves with our Father. He ignites our attention. Give all of yourself.

Lest we forget: Prayer is necessary when the pendulum swings to and when it swings fro.

 This is life and nothing that we see or hear is new. All has been passed down through all time. Hand-to-hand from the beginning surely toward the end. We are not special in that way. We will not see something that has not already been endured. Our task is to master and nurture a relationship with God. In our talks at night and in the morning, God reminds that in all times, He is with us. To and fro. We shall not lose sight of Him, but we shall take in His imparted wisdom. We shall fear Him.

It is true. We fear something each day from the tiniest to the largest thing. This fear does different things. It burns precious time of loving. It steals our heart of joy. It cloaks us with pessimism. It distracts from our fear in the Lord. For I believe the fear of the temporal things is inversely proportional to our fear of the Lord. This means: As our fear of the temporal grows, our fear of the Lord diminishes. We forget God is omnipotent. We forget that He deserves our full reverence. He has created all great and small. He is eternal. Fearing Him is the beginning of wisdom! [a]

Why wouldn’t we displace the temporal fear that rides freely on the coattails of the back-swing of the pendulum? Why wouldn’t we displace this fear with the mighty reverence for the God of all and too, my Lord who I sit with now. In gentleness He guides my thoughts. In kindness He reminds me of what is upright. In love He says I am His child. O pessimism be gone! There is the eternal that shall burn the temporal and I shall reap the harvest of God’s wisdom.

We all shall as soon as we begin to see there are good days and bad days, but there is nothing new under the sun [b]. For I have heard of temporal fear many times in these days. God uses many ways to contact me. So I listen. It took many shouts to grab my attention.

God wants us to see His awesomeness.  There is reverence for Him in our every step. It supplants our worldly fears: inversely proportional. As our fear in the Lord increases, our fears born of this world are displaced. Easy to remember. So we begin.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” Proverbs 1:7

..and the back-swing of the pendulum in our life is nothing more than an exhilarating ride through God’s awesome, reverent nature. Grab ahold of His hand! He quiets the seas. He is steady and loving. He knows because  He has seen all and there is nothing new under the sun.

Rick Stassi

October 8, 2012