Living in the Present Tense

"This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Often quoted, rarely lived. (By me anyway...y'all may not have that problem.)

I find it very easy to live in the future tense. Especially with this scarlet "C" around my neck just now. Let me explain living in the present tense. Think of the phrase "just as soon as..." See if these sound familiar:

"Just as soon as I get out of high school, I'll get serious about life & faith"

"Just as soon as I get out of college, I'll become tight with the Lord"

"Just as soon as I get a job, I'll start living right"

(get the idea? Know anyone who lives like that?)

"Just as soon as I get married...get into shape...have kids...get the kids through school...make a lot of $$...retire...find a decent church...(etc.)"

One of the great blessings about cancer is that it is an outstanding perspective-putter-inner. When one gets that diagnosis, especially a total bummer of a cancer like metastatic melanoma, here's what happens. Put your hands as far apart as possible. Your "to-do" list that was that big prior to getting the diagnosis, shrinks dramatically. Now put your hands about an inch apart. This is about how large the to-do list becomes. And what's left on that list will be what is absolutely essential to the totality of life, whatever one's age is. Think of three things: faith, family, & friends. There's the new to-do list, courtesy of a cancer diagnosis.

Note what's not there any more. "Promotion/position/power at work"..."Take Jr. to his 7th baseball camp this summer so he can learn to throw a splitter at age 8 and get noticed by the bigs"..."Accumulate more stuff"..."the outcome of any college football game"..."Obsess over whether Brett was done right or wrong by the Packers and over where/if he's going to play this year"...(etc.)

Here's my recommendation based on these thoughts. Why wait for a dreadful diagnosis or a tragedy to properly prioritize your to-do list? Why not go ahead & put the first things first now? (as Stephen Covey says it).

How's your walk with the Lord? Why did you answer the way you did? What's keeping you from improving it? Did you say "I don't have time"? Really??? Then you need to off-load several items from your current list. Immediately. Because if you don't have time for your relationship with God, you are attempting to do more than He has for you to do.

How's your family? Your relationship with your spouse if you have one of those? How about your relationship with your kids? Why'd you answer the way you did? Here's a concept from the apostle Paul: "so far as is within you, be at peace with everyone." If you're the Dad, may I suggest that the prerogative to improve things lies squarely on your shoulders. (part of that whole "leadership" thing). I know sometimes things & people get sideways and seem to stay that way. But what I speak of are folks...Dads in particular...who spend all of their "good" time investing in place/power/position at work or in lowering a golf score or something like that, and leave their wives and kids the leftover, worn out scraps of themselves. And then wonder why the relationships are not so great.

How are things with your friends? When's the last time you had a conversation longer than "How're things? Good. You? Great. Seeya."

As I was pondering the topic of "being relational" for church last night, these thoughts came to mind. Pray with me that I--we--would drop all the bogus excuses and put faith, family, and friends on our to-do lists first. And then fill in the rest. Note: I love my job, and view it as a genuine calling from God, and am so very grateful for it. But it does not trump faith, family, and friends on my priority list. I hope 2 things: (a) that I am a professor at WCU for a long, long time to come, and (b) that that job never gets in the way of faith, family, and friends. It doesn't now, in case you're wondering. In fact, one of the many wonderful things about my job is that I am actively encouraged to work on my faith and to place priority on my family & on my community.

Here's my fearless prediction: on your deathbed, you'll not find yourself thinking, "dadburn, I wish I hadn't spent so much time & energy with my spouse & my kids..."

For what it's worth...
Mike

p.s. - off to Oxford today to take the rest of James' stuff (can you say "the Clampetts"?) and especially to see his "white coat" ceremony tonight signifying the official beginning of pharmacy school student-dom. Back home tomorrow. And I'm feeling better & better each day. Thanks for asking! *smile*