Don't Miss the Moments This Instant!

Ever since college I’ve had a heart for college-aged young adults. There’s just something about that time of life – curiosity is piqued; eagerness to learn burns; impressionability rules; and an unquenchable optimism about the future radiates.

When I graduated from college, I threw myself into my career. Monday through Friday I would check in at the office, greet a few folks, and settle in for day in front of my computer, in my solitary little cubicle. I did what I was trained to do. I wrote. I edited. I communicated. I knocked out to-do lists. And ‘round and ‘round the world would turn.

About eight or nine years ago, I began to long for more LIFE in my work, more people contact. I thought about when I was most alive in my life, and realized it was during my college years. And college was still happening for countless young people everywhere – it wasn’t just a period in my personal past.

So I began to knock on doors. I didn’t want to be a professor but I did want to work as a college campus staff member, where interacting with students and impacting lives could be a part of my daily life. I continued to work my day job as I sought out job opportunities on college campuses. One day led into one year, and one year led into nearly a decade. That’s how long I actively pursued this dream that was on my heart, but to no avail.

Then one day, God said yes.

He opened the door at a Christian college in my hometown, a place I never imagined I would ever return. But here I am. I work in a busy, pressure-filled office, and I hammer out multiple to-do lists in lightning speed. Unlike my writing and editing jobs, I have much people interaction. People call and people stop in. Interruptions are the name of the game. But I’ve noticed I don’t embrace these interruptions like I once dreamed I would. Instead, I have resentment that people are keeping me from my to-do list! The worst part is, this attitude can carry over to the very students for whom my heart beats, the ones that I for years longed to have access to.

Are you perhaps living your big dream but missing the little moments you couldn’t wait to experience? Are you married but consumed with your spouse’s imperfections, rather than the companionship s/he brings you? Did you always want to be a parent but find yourself now frustrated by your kids, rather than thankful for the gift of life they bring into your home? Are you in the career you worked so hard to obtain but find the daily pressures keep you from enjoying the things that drew you to it in the first place? Are you empty inside because you got what you always wanted … but lack the perspective that allows you to cherish it?

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”  Luke 10: 41 (NLT)