"What can I reply? My hand I lay upon my lips; Shall I attempt to speak?"
Spring semester is like water. No matter how hard you try to hold onto it, it just slips by. I don't know what it is. Weeks go by faster, classes take less time-- if you're not careful, you find yourself at the end of yet another week asking yourself, "what just happened? wasn't it just Truth and Life?"
This semester in particular is a blur. Even for all the trials, it's gone by fast. One minute you're living up winter break, and then all of a sudden it snows for one morning in Santa Clarita, you send your friend off to Israel, and then life hits you. You think you have time, but you don't.
Wow. Is this how life is gonna be? So fast. So very, very fast.
I guess it is. We grow up. We grow old. Friends come and go.
The Lord stays the same.
As does our responsibility to be faithful.
I think that's what I'm learning most. Yeah, things go by at lightning speed sometimes. It's not about really stopping and smelling the roses, although that's sometimes a profitable exercise. No. It's really about maximizing every moment for the glory of God. It's about seizing every potential opportunity and squeezing all the juice out of it like you would a lime over a fish taco.
I've got to confess, I haven't really succeeded in this. I swore this would be a semester that I would never have to worry about catching up on homework, a semester that I would work out every day and still have time for extra-cirricular reading and be the best Vice President this school has ever seen. Let's just say that those goals haven't been realized yet.
Life comes at you fast, and you don't always have time to deliberate over what is the right thing to do-- sometimes you just have to act. This is why we need to be constantly influenced by the wisdom of the Word of God... so that we make the right choices when they're thrown at us.
In three months, this will be over. I will move out of the dorms for good. I will be done with Vice President. I will be done with Political Studies (except for Senior Seminar). I will be planning for IBEX. One friend will be moving up to Portland for good, two friends to Orange County, and another to Italy for a year. It's weird to think that it's only three months away... three months ago I was watching my brother's high school football career come to a close. Strange to think that in that same amount of time, so many other things will come to a close.
It seems like I'm saying the same things over and over again, and with no real redeeming purpose at that. But I believe it helps to marinate on the fleeting nature of this life. Again, that's why I've titled this blog what I've titled it. This is a vapor. And the vapor is a gift.
Wow.
I guess, in a way, it sort of makes me sad. Robert Frost was right when he penned "nothing gold can stay." But I'm also excited. There's always something new around the corner. A new day, a new friendship, a new trial, a new struggle, a new job, a new book to read, a new joke to tell, a new food to eat, a new sermon to hear, a new aspect of God to dwell on. We never stop learning, as long as we're open. But more than sad or excited, I am struck silent. I can't help but step back and watch the blur that is life on this earth and just ponder that time has no meaning to God. For Him, this is both no time and a very, very long time--- He is in time, but not bound by it. This is already over, this has just begun. I think. Wow.
The Lord is good.
2 Comments:
Steve-
I loved the fish taco line.
I also loved the joyful, excited, expectant outlook at the end of the post.
And let me just say, you've got a lot to look forward to in IBEX.
i know just what you mean...
by the way, i think somewhere in the last three years, you've become a really good writer...marked improvement...
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