No More Chasing the Wind Sample

It’s Temporary

It’s temporary. Whatever you’re going through, good or bad, is temporary.

Several years ago, a man was preaching at a funeral for one of his mother’s cousins. It was a graveside service at the family plot. A number of relatives were buried nearby. The preacher was about to pray to end the service, and he looked up. Several gravestones were beside him, and one had his name on it. He stumbled and almost fell into the grave because he was in such shock. “Wow,” he thought. “Someday, I’m going to be lying right there.”

In 1888, Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, awoke to read his own obituary in the local paper. The obituary was a simple journalistic error; it was Alfred’s brother who had died. Anyone would be disturbed under the circumstances, but for Alfred, the shock was significant. For the first time, he saw himself as the world saw him. In that obituary, he was called “the dynamite king,” a great industrialist who had made a huge fortune by producing explosives. This, as far as the public was concerned, was the entire purpose of Alfred’s life. He was “the merchant of death,” and for that alone he would be remembered.

As Alfred read the obituary with horror, he resolved to make a change. This could only be done through the final disposition of his fortune. His last will and testament would be the expression of his life’s ideals. The result is that now we remember him for the Nobel Peace Prize, given annually to those who have done the most for peace. Alfred Nobel saw his obituary and decided to change the trajectory of his life. If your life, today, is not making a difference, you can change its trajectory.

Scripture tells us that God has placed eternity in the human heart. All of us have a sense that we are eternal creatures, passing through time. Though we know that we are eternal, every day of our life is filled with the temporary. The people who have the greatest impact in the world are those who understand that they are on an eternal journey, that they are going toward a destination, and not chasing the wind.