Today is my kids last day of school for the Summer. They are very excited. When you're a kid, the last day of summer seems like the answer to all of your prayers. No more getting up early, no more homework, no more sitting in class all day and no more having to learn.
Now, days can be spent sleeping in, turning brains into mush with TV and video games, and eating an abundant amount of sugar. What a life.
I loved the last day of school when I was a kid. Its almost indescribable what it felt like to know that I would have freedom for a few months. It was exhilarating to say the least.
I have changed my view of the last day school now that I am an adult. Now I think that it is lame.
Let me tell you why it is lame.
I am not sure exactly when it happened, I think it may have been when I was about 25 or 26 years of age, but I came to the realization that I had been duped. That's right. Duped. See, what had happened was that I was lead to believe that life was what I had experienced up to that point, and when I found out it wasn't as I had expected, It frustrated me.
For 17 years of my life I was in some form of school. Kindergarten through College. During that time, I remember thinking, all I have to do is get through this 9 months, and then I get 3 months off.
Then the sad reality hit- as an adult- there is no such thing as 3 months off.
The truth is that responsibility is a really big word. When you're married, with a couple of kids and a job there is truly no end in sight. Retirement? At 25, you'll be lucky to retire at 65 and that is 40 years away! Stuck in the drudgery of the reality of the repetition of life for the next 40 years, you have to do some serious re-ordering of your thoughts.
Here's the reality- life isn't summer vacation. Life is work. Life doesn't have a foreseeable endpoint- you have to stick with it and realize there isn't a 3 month vacation waiting for you every year. I found out that the sooner you realize it, the better off you'll be.
Where's the victory today? Here it is- in the midst of the realization of the truth of a life with no 3 month vacation God gave me peace. He helped me to realize that while goal setting, or having an endpoint is good, it can be deceiving. It can get you to despise where you are at because you are always looking forward to something better. Often times, there is a great deal to be learned in the midst of today. Right now, in this moment. Not in some moment in the future.
Make no mistake, I'm a goal setter, but sometimes, looking towards the goal too far, can keep you from enjoying where you are at right now, because it appears that happiness is in the future, not right now.
Find happiness in the here and now. Strive for the future, but don't think that you'll only be happy once you get to where you are going, because once you get there, you'll still have somewhere to go.
I gotta go rain on my kids parade now and put them to work for the summer- no better time to understand life than at 8 years of age....
Be blessed
pastor matt
Great Word!
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