What I've Learned - 2009

It's been a year.....2009 will shortly pass into 2010. Amazing. I'm beginning to realize that the time passes whether you recognize it or not. I mean you can pass through your days totally focused on what's immediately in front of you, working to get everything done, and time will pass...seemingly too fast to get all that stuff done. And yet, with getting things done the priority, you miss a lot of the good moments---the conversations with friends, the joy of moments, the adventure. I miss these things b/c I have failed to plan well and I fall victim to the urgent....instead of realizing that all things get done in their own time. People should win out over getting things done. After all, this life is a gift, borrowed time. Every second allowed by God himself. I think that's what I've learned this year. Especially lately. I went home for Christmas and immediately went to a funeral for my great aunt Virginia. Meanwhile, my brother was at a funeral for a good friend of his, a kid who lost his life at 24. There was a memorial service on Monday for Anthony Vietti, a 24-year-old kid who loved to climb mountains, and died doing so. So many lives, some lived out to an old age and some barely into adulthood.

All that just really slowed me down. As they were lowering my great aunt into the ground, it was amazingly clear to me right then that we'll all end up there. A box in the ground. And we get frustrated if we can't find the remote or if we get stopped at red light. It was at that moment that it was all brought into perspective. Or maybe, more accurately, it was that moment that I embraced the lesson. I don't know what how this new depth of understanding will play out over the next year but I know it will be positive.

To go along with that, something else I have grown to understand more deeply this year: each event or interaction or even passing glance all builds to something bigger. One of my Young Life girls tells me that she got started to where she's at now b/c she saw something bigger, deeper, happier in my life. And that built to her amazing walk with Jesus now. People watch your life. They judge your interactions, your reaction and your discussions. They want to know if this Jesus guy is really something worth taking a 2nd glance at. Too often, they judge that it's not. While part of that is where they're at, part of it is where we're at. Just a thought.