“Watch Carefully How You Live”
August 16, 2015
Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise,
making the most of the opportunity.Ephesians 5:15-20
When I was preparing to preach on these words from St. Paul to the Ephesians, I immediately thought of the great American poet, Robert Frost, who ends his famous poem, The Road Not Taken, with these memorable words. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Students, you stand at such a “fork in the road.” Starting today and over the next few years, you will have a whole series of important choices to make! As the road continues to fork, you will be free to choose from a variety of paths and each path you choose will have consequences! As you stand at each fork, weighing your options, you need to know that along with the freedom to choose will come the responsibility to choose wisely. In the past, your parents made choices for you and forced you to accept them, then when things did not work out, you could blame them for the consequences of their choices.
Today, with the freedom to make your own choices, you must now be ready to accept responsibility for your own choices – good or bad – and live with the consequences of those choices. That’s is why St. Paul’s words to you today need your careful consideration. “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons, but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.”
Failure to choose, putting off deciding, is also a choice! As the woman on the TV commercial for another college that specializes in those going back to get their degrees later on in life puts it, “I learned that “undecided” was not a major!” Failure to choose has tremendous implications! In this regard, there are plenty of people who try to follow the advice of Yogi Bera who said famously, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” George Bernard Shaw, on the other hand, has sounder advice when he said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself!”
I discovered his words during my own college days, and I have tried to live out his challenge about “being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making me happy.” In another place, Shaw spoke about being pro-active in creating the lives we want. “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are! I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
Today, with the freedom to make your own choices, you must now be ready to accept responsibility for your own choices – good or bad – and live with the consequences of those choices. That’s is why St. Paul’s words to you today need your careful consideration. “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons, but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.”
Failure to choose, putting off deciding, is also a choice! As the woman on the TV commercial for another college that specializes in those going back to get their degrees later on in life puts it, “I learned that “undecided” was not a major!” Failure to choose has tremendous implications! In this regard, there are plenty of people who try to follow the advice of Yogi Bera who said famously, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” George Bernard Shaw, on the other hand, has sounder advice when he said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself!”
I discovered his words during my own college days, and I have tried to live out his challenge about “being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making me happy.” In another place, Shaw spoke about being pro-active in creating the lives we want. “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are! I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”
Students! In the great scheme of things, compared to the world as a whole, you are privileged to be here! Opportunity is knocking at your door! However, even if opportunity is knocking, you still need to get up and open the door! As one proverb puts it, “Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell!” Believe me, the temptation to blow this opportunity will be unrelenting. Like kids in a candy store, many college students have crashed and burned in their first semester! It has always been easier to “go with the flow” than “grab the bull by the horns.” That’s why the words of St. Paul to you today are so important! “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but wise, making the most of the opportunity.”
What happens if you do not watch carefully how you live, living like a fool and blowing this opportunity? It will be the difference between “having a life” and a joyless, dull, survival existence. You will no doubt be one of those people whom Henry David Thoreau described when he said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” You will no doubt be one of those people that Thomas Merton spoke of when he said, “The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.” You will no doubt be like those John Greenleaf Whittier spoke about in his great poem, Maude Mueller, who look back on their lives with sad regret for opportunities missed, “For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest of these, it might have been!”
There is nothing more stinging to live with than the knowledge of a great opportunity missed for which you, and only you, are to blame. The secret to making the most of this opportunity is to stand up to your own laziness and cowardice, to refuse to be ruled by your passions and addictions, to develop the personal discipline to delay gratification and to do hard things for your own good. In other words, you simply must take charge of yourself.
What happens if you do watch carefully how you live, living wisely and making the most of this opportunity? Again Thoreau puts it quite clearly when he says, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” And again, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate himself by conscious endeavor.” Jesus put it this way when he said to us, “I came to bring you life, life to the full.” “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”
What happens if you do watch carefully how you live, living wisely and making the most of this opportunity? Again Thoreau puts it quite clearly when he says, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.” And again, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate himself by conscious endeavor.” Jesus put it this way when he said to us, “I came to bring you life, life to the full.” “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Students! Don’t be a fool! “Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons, but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.” If you don’t, you will surely be with those who live to regret it!
