TOPIC: Change, Growth
REFERENCES: Colossians 3:1-2 (MSG), Matthew 10:30 (NLT),
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
SERIES: It's A Brand New Year, Is It The Same Old You? | Part 5 of 6

SUMMARY
Pay attention! Maybe you've heard that from the policeman who just pulled you over. Maybe you are half-asleep when awake and half-awake when asleep. Maybe you stopped asking the question a long time ago. Maybe you are just going through the motions and have missed the moments of grace that God has put in front of you because you were not paying attention.

"So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ--that's where the action is. See things from his perspective."-Colossians 3:1-2 :: The Message (MSG)

The spiritual life is one that is attentive to moments of grace that God puts in front of us.
1. An attentive person notices the details
We appreciate people who notice, it indicates that another is trying to understand us and we all desperately need to be understood.

2. An attentive person notices the difference between things
Between what is real and what is just talk, what is important and what is trivial, what needs action now and what is not really all that urgent

3. An attentive person sees the connection between things
Notices the link between what has happened last week and what is happening today.

4. A spiritually attentive person sees the things that are going on beneath the surface
There is always something being said inside what is being said.

Henri Nouwen wrote:

"A few months ago a Vietnamese Buddhist monk came to Holland and one day walked into my house where I lived. He was a thin, slender man whom you would have been afraid to touch. But his clear, fearless eyes radiated an insight so deeply impregnated with affection that the only thing you could hope for was understanding. While he looked straight into my eyes he said, 'There was a man on a horse galloping swiftly along the road. An old farmer standing in the fields, seeing him pass by, called out, Hey rider, where are you going?. The rider turned around and shouted back, Don't ask me, just ask my horse!'

The monk looked at Henri Nouwen and said: 'That is your condition. You are no longer master over your own destiny. You have lost control over the great powers that pull you forward toward an unknown direction. You have become a passive victim of an ongoing movement which you do not understand.' Nouwen's self comment was that it seemed as if the old man had carved his message on my skin like a tattoo and then asked me to let it be seen wherever I go."

Where are you going? Where’s your life going? Have you stopped to think about it recently? The light may be about ready to turn green...so you better pay attention.

MY COMMENTS
Ever since I first heard this sermon, I have started to take a little more notice of the "moments of grace" in my life. These moments are not something that happens to me but rather something I can offer to someone else. The times that I can be there for someone, listen to someone, compliment someone, help someone.... serve someone. Those are the moments in life worth paying attention to.