Another Lesson

As I walk forward into this 78th birthday month, I do so with a mindfulness of the grace of God.  Life is about grace.  If our understanding of life begins with anything else, we have failed to pay attention.  Another thing which has come to me in these accumulating years is the importance of paying attention.  While it may sound farfetched to some, as surely as God has a voice and my spirit has ears to hear, there was a day shortly after retirement when the Spirit quietly whispered to my spirit saying, "Pay Attention."   

Life is not about tomorrow.  It is not about the future.  Life is about today.  It is not a reality known by us when we are young and the years seem as endless as eternity.  When I came to the farm, I began to realize that life was shorter than it was longer.  The most important  day was today.  It was a day too important to miss because I was looking over my shoulder, or toward some moment not yet seen.  Each moment of each day was something God had given out of His grace and it was, therefore, something to be savored.  Within each one were gifts from God and only by paying attention could I fully experience them. 

Alongside of realizing how important it was to pay attention to the present was an understanding that it was important to pay attention to every person whose path intersected with mine.  There was no room for being too busy.  There was nothing too important to keep me being focused on the one who was before me.  If I did not pay attention to others, I would become like the priest and the levite whose business became more important than God's business.  Having been that person, I had no desire to let that old version of me be recreated in my older years.  Paying attention has come to mean that no calendar or email or anything else in all creation is more important than seeing the neighbor in front of me.  Paying attention means taking the time to see whoever God brings into view.