Living Like It's the Summer of '85

It has been a while since I really blogged about my inner thoughts. I am writing this much more for myself than for anyone else. I just like that I can come back to my past blogs a year or two later and see what was going on in my life. So, yeah, I use my blog pretty much life a journal. So, read if you like, but, please, I know it’s long! No need to read if you don’t feel like doing so. I mean, I don’t even proofread these things so it might be better if you don’t.

I was thinking the other day and became quite captivated by my thoughts. I’m not sure what I was even thinking about, to be honest. Not at first anyhow. I was just sort of sitting around my apartment when my memories were turned towards my childhood. Specifically, I was recalling a summer day playing on a Slip’n Slide at a neighbor’s house. There wasn’t anything spectacular about that memory. It was just a typical summer day. I think that is why it captivated me like it did.

Do you remember summer days as a child? Waking up early with the cool of day feeling completely refreshed with little thought of all you had to do that? You weren’t groggy and tired or dreading all…or anything…that lay ahead in that day? And you couldn’t even truly think beyond that day because a day was way too ambiguous of a thought to really think about? There was little or no agenda. Just a day to be had…in whatever manner it might unfold. For me, it was usually a lot of bike riding, jumping on the trampoline, playing at the park, walking around town, maybe a neighborhood game of army or spontaneous water fight using old shampoo bottles as makeshift squirt guns. We were rarely indoors and always on the go; stopping only to “check in” or to grab a drink or pb&j for lunch. And as the night fell we’d catch lightning bugs or play tag in the dark. And just as you would wake up completely refreshed, you’d head home completely exhausted but with feeling of great productivity even though you’d done essentially nothing that day. At least nothing that an adult would deem as “anything”.

Perhaps this is a more cherished thought to me now that I’m an uber-planner and struggle with fixating on knowing what is going to happen every second of each day. It’s hard to say, really, but I think that’s quite probable. So, as I sat in my apartment on Saturday…having slept in way too late, still being overcome by tiredness, not sure what I wanted to do with my day but definitely knowing what I didn’t want to do, feeling as if I’d wasted the day and with nothing to show for it, I just wished it could be like those old summer days again.

Also because I rarely remember comparing each new day to the ones that had passed. The idea of “yesterday” was so ambiguous that it needn’t have really existed. All the baggage of “if only I had….” or “Why did they…?” and such things that often come to mind about the previous day’s events simply had no place in my thought life. Therefore, it was no hindrance to my taking utter delight in the new day. Likewise, tomorrow was nothing more than a word.

So, yes, in those days the day at hand was all that mattered. There was no yesterday, no tomorrow. Just today.

Is that how God wants us to live? I think so. Honestly I do. Yes, He tells us to hope and have faith for things yet seen. Yes, He tells us to learn from the past experience (our own and that of others). But what strikes me more lately is just how much He tells us to live for TODAY. He says not to worry about tomorrow because He’s already taken care of it. He’s told us that our sins are forgiven and we are free from our past. And, yes, He tells us that if we hear His voice today then that is when we are to respond. So, how else can we live in obedience and walk out our life purpose if not in TODAY only? Some things may not come to fruition until a later, appointed time, but TODAY is the day to sow into that. TODAY is the day to seek Him out for the plan and purpose. TODAY is the day of obedience. TODAY should be the day of salvation for those around. If only we can let go of the yesterday, quit hinging all our hope on tomorrow and grab hold of the awesome reality that HE is here TODAY and has provided all that we need!

He has provided me with new mercies each morning so that I can wake up unencumbered by yesterday; refreshed, rejuvenated, and light-hearted. He’s provided for my every need in the day so that I can “play” and have a variety of activities and the supplies I need to enjoy them. He’s gives me purpose in each day that, quite often, leaves me exhausted at the end of it all but also satisfies me with the fullness of what was accomplished.

Not that this is always true. I mean, it can be. I just don’t always live out my days in the way I think He’s telling me to. But I’m going to...starting…today.