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Excerpt
For of all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these: It might have been.
John Greenleaf Whittier
One life, soon past,
Only whats done for Christ will last.
Unknown
This book has one aim: to help encourage you to take advantage of the time and of the opportunities that you have to make your life count for God.
No one wants to reach the end of the road, look back on a wasted life, and wonder what might have been. Yet, sadly, it does happen. Wasted hours can easily turn into wasted days, months and years. Together, they add up to a wasted life.
To live a life of usefulness for God requires a deliberate, diligent and purposeful approach. Without this approach, ones life inevitably swerves from Gods high calling into any of countless pursuits or non-pursuits, all of which fall short of His good, acceptable and perfect will. Meanwhile, the inaudible and noiseless foot of time steals swiftly by.
The scope of this book is not to lay out Gods plan of salvationI will refer you to the Bible for thatrather, it is to encourage the Christian believer to redeem the time and seize each day for God.
This book is comprised of many voices; voices that span thousands of years of human history, all giving tongue to the single concept embodied in the books title and theme. The following stanza from Longfellows Psalm of Life might help to capture the tenor of this compilation:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime.
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
The greatest example of a life sublime comes from the Lord, Himself. Jesus walked the earth for only thirty-three years. He built no great monuments, commanded no armies, presided over no affairs of state, did not marry and did not have children. To cap it all off, He died on a Roman cross like a common criminalsomething that, from the worlds standpoint, would not be considered a good career move or the fitting end to a success story. Yet, for over two-thousand years, the life He lived and gave has influenced, and continues to influence, hearts and lives throughout the entire world. In fact, the word influence does not even scratch the surface of all that Jesus accomplished through his life, death, burial and resurrection.
Our lives may not end up recorded on the pages of a history book; our names may not be remembered on earth a hundred years from now. But by leaving our footprints in the center of Gods will, and by making the most of the time and of the opportunities that God gives us, we can be assured that our lives will be well-spentour labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Longfellow
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be
ye stedfast, unmoveable always
abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your
labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Lastly, the concept behind a book of quotations, is that there are some things that are worth repeating. These are words that have stood the test of time. As I mentioned, most of the quotations in this book date back hundreds of years. Because they were written in another time-period, the writing does not always reflect contemporary style and usage. The prevalent use of masculine-gender pronouns and the use of some archaic vocabulary reflect the writing style of another period.
My hope is that the reader will look beyond the conventions of writing style and attempt to capture the essence of each quotation. In so doing, I pray that these words will inspire you to make the most of your life, your time and your opportunities.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do
good unto all men, especially unto them who
are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:10
Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules,
And each must make
Ere life has flown
A stumbling block
Or a steeping stone.
R.L. Sharpe
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