Last fall, I stumbled across many things…
including a photo of an Occupy Lawrence, Kansas, protestor who got it right:
"I Can Make History."
At Adventures in Missions, I bump up against so many people living out their history these days – "living a better story."
And it begs the questions:
What story are we writing?
What history are we creating?
Are we – instead – allowing ourselves…these breaths of opportunities to slip slide away?
Is it enough to pray and pack and kiss kith and kin and move across the universe to serve – however directly or indirectly – the needs of the go-ers and the gone?
I don't know.
For several days, I've felt burdened – really carrying – this question.
It is a long-familiar wondering, an echo, a hope that the sum of this life will amount to more than its beginnings, failures, and high hopes. That in the living of this thing, we will swim through an endless grace of what matters and offer it's sweetness to quench other thirsty souls.
It is not a concrete exercise this question and answer; this living.
We do our best.
We step aside for others to shine.
We trust and press on; blood-stained, sweat soaked, thistled and tired.
We press on in hopes that our endurance mingles with the divine and our wealth of shortcomings are forgiven.
That these days are not wasted.
That God, himself, delights in our feeble efforts to reflect him; sun reflecting from a grain of sand.
And that the world is somehow warmed.
——
Chris Rice wrote & performed "The Power of a Moment" a few years back.
It's worth a read & a listen:
What am I gonna be when I grow up?
How am I gonna make my mark in history?
And what are they gonna write about me when I'm gone?
These are the questions that shape the way I think about what matters
Well I have no guarantee of my next heartbeat
My world's too big to make a name for myself
And what if no one wants to read about me when I'm gone?
It seems to me that
Right now's the only moment that matters
You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas of my head and
Come write Your wisdom on my heart
Teach me the power of a moment
The power of a moment
The power of a moment
In Your kingdom where the least is greatest
The weak are given strength and fools confound the wise
And forever brushed up against a moment's time
leaving impressions and drawing me into what really matters
You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas of my head and
Come write Your wisdom on my heart
Teach me the power of a moment
The power of a moment
The power of a moment
I get so distracted by my bigger schemes
Show me the importance of the simple things
Like a word, a seed, a thorn, a nail and a cup of cold water
You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas of my head and
Come write Your wisdom on my heart
Teach me the power of a moment
The power of a moment
The power of a moment
photo used with permission by chelsea donoho photography
