Moments

Grab my homework.
Drop off the movies.
Pick up some dinner.
Get to class.
Come home.
Clean up the kitchen.
Relax and watch Heroes (DVR is obviously a blessing from God).
What am I forgetting?

Two steps out the door and I realize I have forgotten my IPOD. Driving from Champaign to Bourbonnais can't happen without it. I run back inside, pick it up, go over the list again.

Grab my homework….almost forgot that one.

Homework in hand I start the list over, now pedaling home.

Grab my homework.
Drop off the movies….MOVIES! I change course and stop off at Blockbuster, now wishing I had just driven to school rather than trying to be healthy and cost efficient and environmentally friendly or whatever else I can come up with to brag about the fact I ride a bike around town. Time is ticking away, and just to be difficult God has the wind blowing right in my face.

As I move on from Blockbuster I see a police cruiser diverting traffic. Wonderful, someone was careless, got into a fender-bender, and now I have to figure out a way around it. I draw closer and see another cruiser, and a fire truck, and another fire truck, and an ambulance. I see EMTs and firefighters surrounding a van that has been through more than a fender-bender.

I am stressing over completing a list and arriving at a class on time. Less than a block away someone is hurt badly, possibly dying. What was my list? Why am I worrying about it? Oh yeah, I need to get this stuff done so I can sit down and watch Heroes tonight. I think I remember another guy that made a list so he could "earn" some relaxation.

And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Luke 12:16-25

I pause, I think, I should probably pray.

Every moment God gives me is a gift. A gift I've done nothing to deserve and constantly squander. I forget the list, I spend the rest of the ride praying for whoever was in that van, and for the workers living their vocation to serve and care for others. I find myself a little more aware that God is present, God is working, and God is giving me moments.

I thank God Christ has forgiven me for all the moments I waste.

Forget Heroes, I have grace.