When Time Isn't Long Enough
Yesterday, my little sister fell asleep on my lap, and it hit me - how much I'm going to miss these days.
People live in different mindsets, some are great at focusing on the subject at hand. I'm not one of those people.
When I was little, all I could ever think of was growing up, seeing the world - and I suspect that many people have done the same. My nine-year-old self wanted to be an Egyptologist and solve the ancient mysteries of the pharaohs. I wanted to do great things with my life, and frankly I've never lost that thought - to dare greatly.
Fast-forward to the teen years, when people begin the great and treacherous journey to discover who they are and where they belong in the world. We're a people looking forward to when we'll know more, but still looking back and wishing things were like they used to be.
When I was sixteen, I began Bible Quizzing - something that God used to rock my world and turn my life upside down in the best of ways. Now I'm on the brink of nineteen, and this is my last season to quiz. Maybe this is hard for a lot of folks to understand, but these past three years have been some of the best years of my life and I would more than gladly live them over again without changing a single thing - without a single different choice. But it's not my place to bend time.
I believe that there's many of us - perhaps more of us than would care to admit - who wish with all our hearts that we could go back.
Back to the age of nine when you built tepees in your backyard with your siblings and stayed up late reading about the life of Tutankhamun.
Back to when you still lived at home and didn't have to worry about what you're going to do next, college exams, or how you're going to get a job.
To the time when your kids were little and you all lived under the same roof.
Back to the day when you were as young as you felt and tomorrow was nothing more than another adventure.
But yesterday, sitting there with a sleepy toddler and thinking about how much I missed the years past - it occurred that one day, it's going to be today that I miss. I'm going to miss my room with the dark blue walls and my map of the world. All of my siblings sleeping within twenty feet of my door, the friends who text me late into the night, the moments like this with a sleepy baby laying across my lap......I might even miss my math books.
But maybe, just maybe........please to tell me we can dare together? Dare to embrace today and live it and relish every little bit no matter how hard or painful it might seem right now? Because life is what really rushes by faster than a speeding bullet, and if you don't stop - you're going to miss it. Living in the moment - that's how you live the full life, "for the Present is the point at which time touches eternity." (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)
People live in different mindsets, some are great at focusing on the subject at hand. I'm not one of those people.
When I was little, all I could ever think of was growing up, seeing the world - and I suspect that many people have done the same. My nine-year-old self wanted to be an Egyptologist and solve the ancient mysteries of the pharaohs. I wanted to do great things with my life, and frankly I've never lost that thought - to dare greatly.
Fast-forward to the teen years, when people begin the great and treacherous journey to discover who they are and where they belong in the world. We're a people looking forward to when we'll know more, but still looking back and wishing things were like they used to be.
When I was sixteen, I began Bible Quizzing - something that God used to rock my world and turn my life upside down in the best of ways. Now I'm on the brink of nineteen, and this is my last season to quiz. Maybe this is hard for a lot of folks to understand, but these past three years have been some of the best years of my life and I would more than gladly live them over again without changing a single thing - without a single different choice. But it's not my place to bend time.
I believe that there's many of us - perhaps more of us than would care to admit - who wish with all our hearts that we could go back.
Back to the age of nine when you built tepees in your backyard with your siblings and stayed up late reading about the life of Tutankhamun.
Back to when you still lived at home and didn't have to worry about what you're going to do next, college exams, or how you're going to get a job.
To the time when your kids were little and you all lived under the same roof.
Back to the day when you were as young as you felt and tomorrow was nothing more than another adventure.
But yesterday, sitting there with a sleepy toddler and thinking about how much I missed the years past - it occurred that one day, it's going to be today that I miss. I'm going to miss my room with the dark blue walls and my map of the world. All of my siblings sleeping within twenty feet of my door, the friends who text me late into the night, the moments like this with a sleepy baby laying across my lap......I might even miss my math books.
But maybe, just maybe........please to tell me we can dare together? Dare to embrace today and live it and relish every little bit no matter how hard or painful it might seem right now? Because life is what really rushes by faster than a speeding bullet, and if you don't stop - you're going to miss it. Living in the moment - that's how you live the full life, "for the Present is the point at which time touches eternity." (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)
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