If I am where I am suppose to be at any given time, my path
will intersect with those I am destined to meet, or encounter. I will be there to reach out to someone, or someone
will be there to reach out to me. If I
am where I am expected in the scheme of my story, I will act, by engaging life;
not merely exist. If I am present at my
appointed time, life will challenge me through conflict or connect me to its
essence through a rare experience, or “aha” moment.
My one fear in life is not being there, missing the moment,
being tardy for a divine appointment. My mind spins and my heart pounds,
thinking I might forsake another, by not being there. I fear being in the wrong
place, at the wrong time. Zigging, when I should have zagged. Absent. Nonexistent. Vacant from life. I
don’t want to be standing on the shore, looking out to sea, and realize my ship
set sail without me. Good or bad, I
want to be present in all of my
moments.
I believe time can be our biggest foe, or our best
friend. Like it or not, time is a
companion through our life’s journey. We
live daily. The sun rises, the sun sets,
calling it a day. Time elapses. Days yield to months, months comprise
seasons, seasons unfold into years.
Years add up, their sum a lifetime.
Time becomes our greatest enemy when we race against it. If we attempt to defy time, we fight a losing
battle. On the other hand, when used for
our benefit and well-being, time can be a comforter, our greatest ally. We can seize time, by making it ours. Or we
can waste time, by letting it slip away unnoticed.
"Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in." - Henry David Thoreau
I am by nature, a scheduled, organized, properly ordered,
sequential person, living, “Life by the book- my book!” A number of years
ago, I decided to embrace time as a faithful friend, instead of my antagonist. (This was not an easy task, by the way!) By
doing so, I no longer race against the hour glass; as the sands of time fall, I
open up my hand and capture each tiny grain, each moment. As a result, I am less fearful of “not being there,”
because I am no longer hurried, or enslaved by my fear.
Liberated, I enjoy time. I use time, it doesn't use me. I daily face my fear of absence, by allowing
myself to be present in the moment. I choose
to be still, not scheduled. I silence my
restlessness by giving myself permission to get caught up in time: getting lost in a thought, soaking up
sunshine, gazing into nature, being captivated
by a good book, breathing in life, instead of gulping it down. Recently, I sat for over an hour watching a
tiny snowflakes dance outside my window. Many might say, I wasted my time, au contraire. By yielding time to a dancing snowflake, years
of understanding were added to my life.
Today is a new day, full of once in a lifetime moments. Don’t miss out on any of them. This is the
day that the Lord has made, take the time, pause for a moment, and rejoice and
be glad. After all, our times are in His
hands. I cherish Charles Spurgeon’s words;
the “atmosphere of our existence” is in the hands of God. Forever
present, never absent. Amen.
