Skip to main content

Be All There

A friend of mine taught me this saying: "Wherever you are, be all there."

Do you live like that, or do you try to borrow from tomorrow?

There are times when I catch myself trying to live several days in advance, worrying over this and distressed about that, but the Lord has been teaching me to give up this anxious habit. I wasn't more productive by worrying ahead; I was just more stressed out. We don't control how many numbered days we have, so it's best to live them wisely one at a time. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psalm 90:12) Planning is fine; fretting over plans is not.

We will all have many events in life, but will we "be all there," or will our bodies be present while our minds go elsewhere? We only have a limited amount of time on this side of heaven. Wouldn't it be a shame to miss out on the precious moments by failing to focus on one event at a time?


Our youngest son Collin graduated from Bible College in May of 2013. While I sat in the auditorium waiting for his name to be called, I enjoyed the moments of watching every student graduating. It was so much fun to be there...all there.


Our oldest son Austen announced his engagement in June of 2013. When his fiancée Jessica showed us the ring, I was transported back to the moment when my Norman gave me my ring and asked me to marry him. I was here and there!


Our daughter Hillary moved to Virginia to attend law school later that same year. The day we were unpacking the moving truck, the clouds opened up and a downpour drenched us! We put on baseball caps, and in dripping clothes we unloaded that truck in record time. It was a milestone moment, and we were "all there." We were all wet, too.

Norman H. kisses me goodbye every day before he leaves for work, and I capture that kiss in my mind. And when I give him a snack after work, I kiss his forehead while he's sitting in the chair. These are loving moments that keep us "all there" in our relationship, right here and now. How do we know if we'll have each other tomorrow?

When your loved ones leave for the day, do you pause long enough to look at them and really see them? We assume that we'll say good morning and goodnight, but in reality, we only have this moment. Are you all there?

Life is a vapor that vanishes fast enough without us trying to live in the present and the future at the same time. It takes some thought, but with practice we can train ourselves to focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking is highly overrated. Just live the moments God grants you, one at a time. Plan ahead, but don't try to live ahead.

"Wherever you are, be all there." It's a motto that makes good sense.

"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (James 4:14)




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Parents Are Not Responsible for That

Parenthood is not a role for wimps or whiners. There are the exciting times such as music recitals, sports tournaments, and graduations. But if your tribe is like ours, you've probably also had the maddening moments, like the time one of our children discovered how to unfasten the tapes on his diaper and used the contents as "chalk" on the bedroom  wall (yes, it was "his," so that narrows the field of suspects). Children are young for a few blinks, and then we spin around and we're hearing "Pomp and Circumstance," that familiar graduation march as our "babies" walk down the aisle in cap and gown. If they choose to go on to college, four snaps later, we're sitting in the auditorium at their college graduation, scanning a long list of names in the commencement bulletin while waiting to watch them walk across the platform to receive yet another diploma. It's warp-speed fast (except that diaper stage). Parents don't min

What Just Happened?

I find myself praying in questions lately. "Lord, what just happened here?" (This time last month, we were walking a sandy beach in Florida, calling it our "last anniversary vacation.") "Did you REALLY take my Norman ALREADY ?" (I spent way too much time on Google, and all the articles said that Norman had a chance of surviving at least a year.) " LORD , are you SURE I can endure all this excruciating pain?" (I'm certain that I cannot bear this, but obviously, if I'm typing, I'm still bearing this somehow. Only God.) The last anniversary vacation Now here's what I do not want after you've read this: platitudes. Absolutely no platitudes. (Platitude: Overused statement applied liberally and repeatedly in an attempt to comfort or instruct. Paraphrased definition.) Example: "Heaven is getting sweeter." I understand that this is a phrase from a song, and it is not offensive in any way. It j

The Not Yets

We pray. We wait. We repeat. We pray. We wait. We repeat... What's on your waiting list of prayers? I call this my list of  Not Yets.   The waiting period of prayer is labor, and this labor builds strength. We may think that we would prefer to just have our answers without the strength-training, but God loves us too much to give us whatever we want.  It is possible for an adult to be just as spoiled as a toddler. Parents know what happens when they let toddlers have their way. It's chaos and crabbiness. We are grown up toddlers if we are only happy when things are going our way. Waiting and praying through some very uncomfortable situations is "wait training" at its best. We wait. We grow. We learn how to patiently endure, and then the next waiting period doesn't seem as hard. "Wait on the L ORD : be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the L ORD ." (Psalm 27:14) The list of Not Yets