Last night I sat in a major college football stadium and watched my son play his first big-time high school game in front of thousands of fans.  As any proud father would be, I was bursting with pride and excitement.  I looked around at the setting, the crowd, and the excitement in the air and I felt so very much. I was filled with the expected emotions of the moment- pride and love- but I also felt other, less anticipated feelings.  I felt blessed.  I felt alive. I felt nostalgic.

My wife and I had arrived in different cars, so after the game I found myself driving home alone.  I plugged in my iphone and set it to shuffle.  The second song that came up was “100 years to live,” by Five for Fighting.  The words struck me.  They were what I was feeling so intently.  I’m only forty-something for a moment.  My boy is only 15 for a moment.  He is only home for a moment.  It all seems so precious, so very sublime, when you’ve “only got 100 years to live!”

The experience of last night was awesome, but it is over.  I hope I truly soaked it in.  It makes me realize that I don’t soak the moments in enough.  I stress about too many fleeting things.  The good stuff only lasts for a moment!!!

Lord, help me to soak it all in for the moments I have left!

Here is a short poem from my book of spiritual poems entitled, “Reflections on What Matters.”  I hope you enjoy it.

Like Today Was My Last

What will I do tomorrow?

Where will my journey lead?

I worry, I plan, I wring my hands,

And rush through my days with great speed.

I take for granted the rising sun,

I assume the calendar will advance.

“It always has,” I say to myself,

“I’ve put nothing to chance.”

But how certain is my tomorrow?

What guarantee have I of another day?

How many thought they’d see another sunrise?

To only have it taken away?

The truth is I do not know,

What the next moment has in store.

I could live another eighty years,

Or die as I walk through my front door.

It all brings the scripture into perspective,

“Your life is a vapor that vanishes away.”

How fragile is each breath that I take?

Could this be my life’s final day?

Therefore I must change the way that I live,

Priorities different than in the past.

Help me Jesus as I schedule my life,

To live like today was my last!