NOSTAGLIA: WEIGH STATION, SYLLABUS, RUN, SUSHI, LIFE & TIME

Today (and night) was rather a nostalgic day (and night). 

I woke up and went to the Weigh Station with Zane, got a call from Eric Zeller to talk through some logistics about India (I’m excited about that).  That was especially interesting because just as I was telling Zane the last time I was there (at the Weigh Station) I was there with Eric Zeller, then he (EZ) calls me.  Yeah, freaky weird.  But then it was really cool.  I thought about how timely God is and coming across times like that when I am amazed again just makes me straighten up my back a little and smile.

I then found out that I have 14 more papers to write.  At first it was “seriously?” then I looked back at the grace and time God allowed me to write 13 papers in the last week.  This made the following 5 hours a really profitable time of reading and thinking and thanking.  It wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked because some of that time involved a little defeat.  Meaning, I didn’t want to write another 13 (plus one) papers.  Then I received an email from Jeff asking me to help him out with getting a syllabus of a class of his sent to him because the format wasn’t legible in english (he’s in Europe now).  That took a while because of this and that…anyway, I thought ‘Man, there  are things that I need to take care of, important priority things’.  Then I thought, ‘But while there are those things in my life, important things what should be priority things now?’  Then realized I can’t be too busy to help someone else out.  I gotta make it more of my heart to consider other’s needs more important than my own – all the time, everytime, all day everyday etc.  Yeah, I know.  That’s really simple but something that is overlooked because of the subtle nature of our own self-centeredness; mine that is.  Then I thought, well that’s easy because I love Jeff and I’d do anything for him (I think…ha!  Naw, I would).  What about someone that I wasn’t remotely that excited about or someone that was an annoyance to me or even an enemy?  Would I still serve then?  Or when I didn’t want to?  Now, what do I do with that one, hugh?  I never did end up starting those papers yet.  But I will, I hope. 

Anyway, then I went for a run while listening to Sean Kingston’s Fire Burning.  Its about dancing.  I think I would’ve love to have danced instead of run.  I stopped for a moment, mainly because I was dying but then I started to think about what my goal was in running.  Then this is what motivated me to start running again, harder, faster, stronger (ha!)…Discomfort, pain or difficulty can accompany any season of life.  Sometimes the conditions are favorable, externally or internally.  Sometimes, they’re not.  Sometimes, you hurt, sometimes you have a second wind and you keep going.  Sometimes you even need to stop, slow down or even take a breather.  The point is, your run or season of life is never the same and that’s okay.  Pain can be a part of the journey and when it comes, its okay to stop and slow down and rest a bit, take a breather and get going when you’re ready. 

Then evening came.  I had dinner with the Baughman’s (Brian & Becca) at Kabuki’s – sushi – yeah-yah!  It was a good time.  Good food, good company and good conversation.  They’re great together and for not having touched based with them for a while it really was nice to be with friends.  I’m excited for them and happy for them. 

After that I went over to Rick & Esther’s where Beth, Dave & Tricia were playing a board game, Settlers I believe.  Then we played Life.  It was really a good time.  We got through the entire round, earned some money (not real money of course), made some investments, collectead, gained money, gave it away etc.  Even though it was a game, and even though I was “making fake money”, I thought, ‘Wow, what would I really do with all this?  Would I really want to give some money away like I felt during the game?  Would I really want to just give Dave $100,000 to go on vacation because he was losing a lot of money?’  (By the way, if you’ve never played the board game Life you should…its really a lot of fun).  Yeah, this sounds noble, the giving away money bit, but I’m not sure that I would.  Maybe.  I hope I would.  It felt good wanting to.  But honestly, I really did want to help Dave out.  If I had a million dollars, I think I would give that much to Dave to take he and his family out for a really nice (really nice) vacation (he was a struggling school teacher).  The point here is, real life isn’t about giving a best friend money to go on vacation, though it could be (1. because I don’t have that kind of money, 2. I still don’t have that kind of money) but the relationships that I do have, have had and will have, far out way the value of my bank account (that’s fo’ real) or the material possessions I have or dont have.  Value the time you have with your relationships.  You wont always have that luxary.  Enjoy it for what it is in the moment.  More than anything, I’ve learned that time will always cut me short this side of heaven and because of that I’m learning that God actually uses time as a grace to teach me how to value the people in those times.  I wont just have ‘enough time’ in eternity to be with them, but I’ll actually have Christ Himself and those precious relationships without any frame of time.  That, should be worth investing  any or all of my time into relationships now; with Christ and with others.  Man, I really do have tons to work on…