Yesterday at church the sermon was about left overs. Leftover scraps and portions. Food, paper, fabric, whatever really. What do we do with our leftovers of life? How do we organize them? Decide what’s important? What to keep, what to throw out, give away?
We all take pictures to memorialize a moment. To keep the memory. We might even keep cards and letters and notes for the same reason. To capture the sound of a voice that we don’t get to hear anymore or re-read over and over again the words of a prized and treasured love letter.
The punch line being that everything we have today is tomorrow’s leftovers. The one thing that does not wither or fade or change is the love of God.

We acquire many things in this life. Stuff. Possessions. Relationships. Experience. Memories. Wealth. Debt. Friendship. Love. Hate.
Some of which we give and share freely, some we hoard for ourselves. Some we wish we could rid of and desperately try to.

At the end of the day, with my head on the pillow before drifting off to sleep it all becomes this morning’s leftovers. What deserves my attention and energy?

One of the books I am committed to reading for my bootcamp/rehab is John Orterburg’s book,” Love Without Reason”. He talks about, “One of the great miracles in this life is that God pays attention to us, this is how He shows his love.” He shares different excerpts from the psalms that talk of Gods face shining upon us, to give us peace. Turning His face toward us to give us grace. He says,” to turn your face toward someone is to give that person your whole-hearted, undivided attention. It is not the casual listening of a preoccupied mind. It is a statement: I have nothing else to do. Nowhere I’d rather be. I’m fully devoted to being with you. This is the kind of attention God lavishes on us.”

I know that in my life, I miss this. I have been so distracted and preoccupied that I have not noticed this lavish love. I’ll even confess that I have doubted its very existence. Trying to manage all of my stuff leaves me little time or attention for much else.

Orterburg says,” attention is so valuable we don’t just give it, we pay it.”

Boomshakalaka.

What am I paying attention to?

We are all given a currency each morning of energy. Where we spend it either proves to be a great investment or terrible waste. Our thoughts, our attitude, or attention is all up to us to spend wisely. It will determine what leftovers we will be dealing with tomorrow. Ones of value and worth or just heavy baggage.

May we all experience the lavish love of Gods face shining upon us this morning, and may it cause us to choose to pay more attention to the really really good stuff in our lives today.

Listen to the lyrics: