The Pendulum of Life

Have you ever watched the pendulum of a large clock, like a grandfather clock? It goes back and forth in a slow, methodic rhythm. Never stopping. Never detouring. Just left and right and left again, over and over as it ticks off the time passing by.

Our lives are a lot like that pendulum.

We’re constantly in motion. We’re forever moving forward or back. We often experience the same kinds of challenges over and over as we make the same types of decisions over and over. Sometimes we want things to be drastically different, but time passes by slowly without much change. Is there something we have to learn before we can move on? Will we ever grow past this time in our life? Even if life spirals out of control because of something that happens, it somehow falls back into the steady rhythm of day after day.

The one thing we can count on is that our life pendulum never stops. Whether time is going way too fast or days are barely moving on, the truth is that nothing ever stays the same.

In good times or bad, time never stands still. We are always moving and changing. Those around us are always moving and changing. Our intertwined lives and our relationships with others never stay the same. We have to continually work at keeping in touch. Staying close. Understanding what’s happening. Miss a day talking to a close friend, and we now have to catch up with what they’re thinking, what they’re doing, where they’re heading, what’s exciting or what’s going wrong. And why.

At the same time, whether you believe in God or not, our lives are intertwined with Him. Known or unknown, we all are in a relationship with Him. A relationship that’s always changing. And we’re either moving toward Him or we’re moving away.

There may have been a time in the past when we felt really close to God. We saw Him, we heard Him, we felt His presence. We believed in Him with passion and lived that passion out. And now we don’t. Things happened. Things changed. We changed.

Or we may’ve lived to this point in our lives doubting that there really is a God who knows and sees all things, and much less cares. The people that we know who claim to be Christians aren’t any different than anyone else, except that they believe they’re somehow going to heaven and others aren’t. And yet, we still wonder about God. We still wonder about heaven, and what happens after death.

Or maybe we’re at a juncture in our lives when we need to find the truth about God. We’ve lived enough pain and hurt to know what the world has to offer and we want to see if there’s something more. Surely there must be something more. We need to know for ourselves. We want to hope for our kids. Are you there, God?

No matter where we’ve been. No matter where we are. No matter how long it’s been since we humbly came before God, if ever. God is calling. And He wants us to come to Him. He wants us to stop the pendulum of our lives from moving away from Him, and start going toward Him.

God is God eternal. He is unchanging. His love remains the same. He calls to us and waits for us to respond. We can swing past Him. We can continue to move away from Him. But He gives us this promise: If we move toward Him––if we come looking for Him––He will be found.

It’s never too late to change the pattern of our lives. It’s never too late to stop swinging past or away from God and instead start moving toward Him. Hear Him? He’s calling.

“Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” James 4:8 (NLT)

May I pray?

God, we all have different backgrounds, but one thing that’s universal is that our lives never stay the same forever. People come and go. Situations get better or worse. Things happen. Things change. Thank You, Lord, that even in the midst of chaos, You will never change. Help us today to make a decision to move toward You and start focusing on what doesn’t change. Amen.

Q4U: Is your life swinging past or away from God, or are you moving toward Him?

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