Tyrranous and Wretchedly Urgent Time

Here, the rains come sweeping in from the west. I see the Doppler green hovering over Arkansas and Louisiana, and I know it's moving this way. Soon, drops will fall on Mississippi, then Alabama...then Georgia. And I'm waiting. I'm waiting because this is the one rare weekend I don't want it to rain. The one weekend I've had marked on the calendar for months. The weekend I gave up other perfectly good opportunities to visit some old college friends to see some other old camp friends. This is the weekend I am going back to Riverview. This weekend I plan to play in the trees and swing from airplane cables and jump out of tall platforms. However, thunderstorms and metal wires, belays, and steel 'beaners don't mix well. So I wait to see what will happen.

I've realized I spend most of my life waiting. Waiting for the work day to end. For the clock alarm to go off. Waiting for the stores to open, waiting for the clothes to dry, the water to boil, and the dentist to see me now. Waiting for the weekend, for the iron to get hot, and for the computer to boot up. Waiting for my husband to come home. I've decided in those in-between moments, the times when the sense of dreaded urgency overwhelms and the fretting starts, I need to stop waiting and just live.

I should enjoy the calm before the downpour, savor the early morning moments before the alarm, and keep the commandments in my heart and on my lips. I want to be always thankful for every moment, substituting those sudden stretches of waiting with Scripture meditation-- to redeem the time and tread carefully through my days.

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." Ephesians 5:15-21