Push Play

I love the song Just Fishin’. It makes me cry. Every. Time.

This song reminds me of all the minutes, hours, days, months, years God gave me with my children - molding, playing, schooling, reading, singing, nagging, praying, interfering, spanking, hugging, bossing - doing all the things I did that both amused and annoyed them.

But I had an end result in mind. I wanted my children to be a blessing in the world. And I wanted to enjoy them as they made the journey to adulthood. I didn't know how much time I would have with them. I wanted to please Christ with the time He gave me.

So when I hear this song, I cry. Every. Time. To me, the song represents what I always knew - time is ticking.

The end does come. Chapters of a book close. A movie rolls the credits. The last notes of a symphony fade. And the time of my life that I knew would come – has come. My children are grown. Every one.

I mean, I was always conscious, really conscious that it was coming. And because of my mental awareness, I was always pushing the pause button in my life. I wanted to drink in every moment God was giving to me. I wasn't sad that time was ticking - I was only sad if I was wishing for another time of life - like some time in the past or some time in the future. No, I wanted to enjoy my "now" time. I really didn’t want to look back one day and wish I had lived more fully in the present.

So as I woke up each day, I didn’t want to rewind nor did I want to fast forward. I just wanted to push play and live in the present.

However, when life seemed to be on fast forward without any pushing from me - I pressed pause.

For me, I think it was actually the "live deliberately" button.

The present – that’s what we have. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's so painful, we find ourselves wishing for another time. But even in the painful times, God wants us to let Him work. He wants us to be still and know He is God.

The past is good. It gives us a foundation on which to learn from our mistakes and build on our "did-this-right" moments.

The future is good. It gives us a hope on which to plan ahead, number our days, and live with purpose. We can smile as we think about the future. We can smile as we think about the past. But we can only smile at the past and the future if we are living, really living in the present.

I don’t know, God gave and is still giving me a real sense of every-moment-matters. The happy ones. The painful ones.

So when I think about all the amusing and annoying things I did with my children, I am reminded that so much of the time, they thought we were "just fishin'." But actually, we were doing so much more.

So now, as I wake up each day, I'm living in the present. I'm thankful for the foundation of the past, I'm thankful for the hope of the future, but I'm living in the joy of the present.

And you know what? When I spend time with my children's children - they, too, think we're just fishin' . . . but we are doing so much more.

Happy fishin'