The Lasting Things

My sink is overflowing with dishes. And some old food that didn’t make it to the trash. When I say overflowing, I mean a whole counter is covered with plates and bowls and cooking implements carrying the remains of our meals and experiments.

But I held my seven-week-old Anna today and had the time to pray, begging God to cover her with His blood, to change her heart. So long as she has Him, nothing that comes to her in this life will be too hard to bear, or too joyful to steal her from His presence.

By this point, my floor is creating new life forms. Honestly, I don’t know if my living room rug will ever be the same color it was before.

But I listened to my three-year-old Joshua telling me a story that I still don’t understand, but I know meant something to him. I read him books and held him close, and felt his sticky-chocolaty kiss on my cheek.

Leftovers have become the main sustenance in life, that or cold cereal, or sandwiches. Freezer food is also a normality at the moment.

But Patrick and I enjoyed being in each other’s company, and laughed and kissed, and grew a day older and deeper in love.

I made no money today. I fashioned no businesses, climbed no corporate or political ladders. I never glanced at the news and have no clue what’s going on in the outer world, and I’m certainly not shaping the news.

But I heard Joshua telling Patrick his catechism as my little boy sat in his daddy’s arms. There is only one true God... Nothing can be hidden from God… God is everywhere... God can do all His holy will... I have a soul that will last forever…

If you don’t accomplish everything on your list today, remember to accomplish the things that last. The rest of those things you had to get done can wait one more day. Souls cannot. Most everything you see around you will pass away. What you choose to do with what you see around you will last forever, as it imprints on your soul. Take the time for patience. Take the time for joy. Take the time to remember there will come a day where there is no more time. You will have eternity to look back on how you spent today. Will it be, “Oh boy, I remember that frustration!” or will it be, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”

Always keep where we are headed burning in your vision. I’ll post a longer writeup on it later, but for now just remember it makes a difference. Remembering we are sojourners here on earth keeps us focused on the journeying, not the staying. When on a long road trip, we might pause for an interesting stop, or to enjoy a good meal; but the thought of that destination keeps us always on vision, always weighing what we are stopping for with how long it will keep us from our goal. Enjoy the trip. But remember we aren’t staying.

Take the time for the things that last.

Somedays that means doing a sink full of dishes with a grateful heart bursting out in hymns that fill the house and remind your children of solid words and truths.

Somedays that means letting the dishes stack up so you can fletch those arrows God’s put in your life.

And remember this isn’t just to wives and mothers, husbands and daddies. I’m speaking to aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandaddies, sisters and brothers, church family… God puts the singles in families. We all have someone we influence, and someone who looks up to us. If you don’t, maybe you should take the opportunity to get to know some of the families in your church home better. Because I know you have plenty to offer.

Keep the goal in mind, that vision burning in front of you, and use it to judge how you spend your minutes, hours, days, months, and years. Our time here is very short, to paraphrase the Ghost of Christmas Present. Spend your minutes like your dollars; carefully, thoughtfully, and on things that last.