Passing Shadows

   I am sitting in my den/office/spare bedroom right now looking at the blank screen of a malfunctioning TV. I can still get a picture, but the color is messed up somewhat, and I have been looking for a solution. It has taken far too much of my time to get a service man to look at it and determine either the cause, or the remedy, or both.

   Now I got all of that done on Thursday, the 11th day after the problem began. The rep told me that it could not be fixed, and that, since I had an extended warranty, they would replace my tv with a new one. All of that is OK, and probably good news, but now other things take my attention.

   Do I junk the old one, while it still works enough to use? What size new one do I get? If I leave the old one here in this room, what do I do with a new one?

   Then there are other concerns: I have been doing all my watching from the Internet, so do I spring for cable to get all the shows I want to see, especially since it is football season again? Do I go to the Sky Angel network, a Christian alternative to regular cable, so as to miss all the bad stuff on tv? Do I just plug along as I have been doing?

   Then I think in the midst of all these questions, would not my thinking time be better spent in some other way. I pondered all these tv questions for a couple of hours this morning, even on my walk and through breakfast, so that I did not even sit down to think about God until now.

   I recognized all of the above as I sat down to read, pray and write. My prayer was for God to help me see through all the distractions, to help me get to right decisions, even on mundane stuff like tv, and to get my life focused on Him as it should be.

   Then the verses from Psalm 144 just a few minutes ago:

"O Lord, what is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?

Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow."

   In the long term scheme of things, what is important, what is lasting, what is worthwhile?

   The answer to any of the above is probably not tv.

   So, I pray again, for the ability to see right priorities, and not to waste my passing shadow on things that are not eternally worthwhile.

   Can I work this whole thing out? God willing.

   Thy Will Be Done