ON THE VANGUARD

3,024,000 BEATS
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity."
I Timothy 4:12

I dabble with poetry a little, and a few years back I wrote a poem for someone I cared about. Allow me to share a portion with you as it will help to make my point for today.

The heart is beating, keeping time, the drummer of our lives,
from the moment we’re first conceived, till the day we close our eyes.
In just one small second, the heart of a hummingbird,
will beat twenty times, yet never will it be heard.
In one brief minute while we recite nursery rhymes,
a newborn’s heart beats a hundred and forty times.
An hour passes by and with twenty-four hundred beats,
the black stallion, tone and sleek, is adored by all he meets.
Over forty thousand pulses in one day of the year
for the massive elephant who slowly trudges near.
Three million, twenty-four thousand human beats of the heart,
the constant drumming in just one month is God’s work of art.

It is the last bit I want to focus on. What are we doing with our lives? The human heart beats 3,024,000 times in one month. What are we filling those beats with? Are we seeking God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength? Or are filling those beating moments with sinful pleasures?
Theologians say that Timothy assisted Paul on his second missionary journey and later was left in charge of the work in Ephesus when Paul was in jail. Maybe it was at this time when Timothy needed the encouragement to keep on going. Paul wrote in I Timothy 1:18 to "fight the good fight." But if Timothy was anything like you and I, he probably had those moments when he needed some encouragement. He needed someone to cheer him on. He needed someone to encourage him to not listen to the negative words, or complain when he didn't give into to the status quo. He needed someone to praise him for setting the standard. Perhaps Paul knew how many beats the heart pulsed in a month, maybe he didn't. But he knew that every one of the those beats should beat for God, and he encouraged Timothy to live the same.
We face the same challenge. Like Timothy, we may be ready to give in, tuck tail, call it quits, end the show. But also like Timothy, God brings a 'Paul' into our lives to encourage us to keep fighting, keep setting the standard, and keep living every heartbeat for Christ. I am sure you have a 'Paul' in your life, but then again you may not. I am confident of this one thing, though. When our love is for the things of God, and our dislike is in what God calls sin, then we are beating in unison with Him. I encourage you,as even now I challenge myself, to beat in unison with God's heart.