Walkabout

The Australian aborigines call it "walkabout". It refers to their practice of going for a walk with no destination or return time...they just "go walkabout". Back later, sometimes much later. I like it, as I go walking like that quite frequently. I like to go out, and just open my mind to God, talking with Him, listening for His reply. Went out for one of those walks recently and found myself thinking about time. Time that has passed, and time that remains.Time to minister and time to serve God.
   I'm sixty this year so there's a lot more time behind me, than before me. Cancer brings a further perspective. With God's healing or a complete medical remission, I suppose it would be reasonable to expect another fifteen years or so. Not much really, considering how fast the years pass now. If the cancer returns again, then the time line would more likely be on the order of five years or less...really not much there. If everything went as bad as it possibly could, then I'd be lookmg at something more like six months. Sobering.
   My heart is at peace, my trust is in God, and my prayers are in His keeping, so none of this moves me at all. The question for me now is: what to do with the time? When time becomes a precious commodity, when events conspire to force you to confront the ephemeral quality of our lives here, how does one determine that they will best spend that remaining time? Make a "bucket list"? Plan the vacation you've always wanted? Throw a midlife crisis? These are questions that belong not just to the latter years of our lives, but are questions with which we should all be concerned, questions that can help us to lead the fullest, most satisfying and productive lives possible. As I walked with God that day, I believe I heard His voice, supplying the answer I needed.
   We just plain move too fast. Our schedules are tyrants, driving us, impelling us, ruling over our hours and minutes. We race from one appointment to another, from one urgency to the next. We have no time to enjoy many times, and God has given us ALL THINGS RICHLY TO ENJOY. We need to find ways to slow down, even for a moment, and enjoy the lives that God has given us before they vanish.Think of how easy it could be. Instead of turning on the water for the grass, and running to get the next thing done, I can stop and spend a moment watching the water spray above the lawn. That's why I go to all the bother, isn't it? To enjoy the green? Five minutes out of my schedule won't make terrible lot of difference in the long run, but it sure will make my day nicer, and me a little easier to live with. If I come home from work, can't I spend ten or fifteen minutes on the couch with Diane, just enjoy8ng her company and catching upon each others days before we plan our evening together. Didn't we marry for precisely that reason, because we wanted to actually live together, and not simply pass on our way to separate events?  Couldn't we all learn to spend a moment watching the play of light and shadow in the trees on a beautiful day, clearing our minds for a time of the busyness, and maybe creating a time when God could speak into our consciousness, dropping some rare jewel of peace into our mind?
   I think, if we could learn to do that, not only would we enjoy our days much more-no matter how many we have-but we might even find those days become more productive and satisfying to us. We might find that God is more able to direct us, and use us, and bless our time. We might just find that we really like it much more than the way we've been living.

Walkin' in Him,
Lar