{"id":25348,"date":"2023-02-16T15:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T22:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-redeem-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-02-16T15:59:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T22:59:44","slug":"2023-hourglass","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2023-hourglass\/","title":{"rendered":"Time in the Hourglass"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">By Max Lucado<\/p>\n<p><strong><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-25349 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/q-239x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/q-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/q-563x705.jpg 563w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/q.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" \/>Time in the Hourglass<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s only so much sand in the hourglass. Who gets it? You know what I\u2019m talking about, don\u2019t you? Each June I put my calendar together for the coming year. Decisions to be made. You may not stockpile your requests until June, but your situation is every bit as real. It\u2019s a tug-of-war, and you\u2019re the rope.<\/p>\n<p>On one side are the requests for your time and energy. They call. They compliment. They\u2019re valid and good. Great opportunities to do good things. If they were evil, it\u2019d be easy to say no. But they aren\u2019t, so it\u2019s easy to rationalize.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side are the loved ones in your world. They don\u2019t ask you to consult your calendar. They don\u2019t use terms like \u201cappointment\u201d and \u201cengagement\u201d or \u201cdo lunch.\u201d They don\u2019t want you for what you can do for them; they want you for who you are. Are you making time for them?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-25350 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/r.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"174\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/r.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/r-300x87.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Big Picture<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Would you buy a house if you were only allowed to see one of its rooms? Would you buy a car if you saw only its tires and taillights?\u00a0Good judgment requires a broad picture.<\/p>\n<p>One failure doesn\u2019t make a person a failure; one achievement doesn\u2019t make a person a success. \u201cThe end of the matter is better than its beginning,\u201d penned the sage.\u00a0\u201cBe patient in affliction,\u201d echoed the apostle Paul.\u00a0We only have a fragment.<\/p>\n<p>Life\u2019s mishaps and horrors are only a page out of a grand book.\u00a0We must be slow about drawing conclusions.\u00a0We must reserve judgment on life\u2019s storms until we know the whole story.\u00a0Jesus said in Matthew 6:34, \u201cDo not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.\u201d\u00a0He should know \u2013 he\u2019s the Author of the story.\u00a0And he has already written the final chapter.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-25352 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/t.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/t.jpg 800w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/t-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/t-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/t-705x470.jpg 705w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":25349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[35],"class_list":["post-25348","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-english-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/25348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/25348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25353,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/25348\/revisions\/25353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25348"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=25348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}