Bookends

There’s two dates in time
That they’ll carve on your stone
And everyone knows what they mean
What’s more important
Is the time that is known
In that little dash there in between
– Garth Brooks, “Pushing Up Daisies”

————————————————————

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. – James 5:7

————————————————————

The two dates in time.  The autumn and spring rains.  Bookends.  Markers.  The two dates in time is a very familiar bookend set.  The date you are born and the date you die.  The autumn and spring rains bookend set is not so familiar.  In ancient Israel, the autumn rains and the spring rains each had a purpose.  The autumn rains prepared the fields for plowing and planting.  The spring rains prepared the grain crops for harvest.  In between, the crops grew and the farmers prepared for harvest. 

The space between the bookends is critical.  It is where we live out our lives, where we prepare for harvest, and as such what we do in the space has eternal implications.

I was reminded this weekend that space can be long or very short.  And we don’t know which it will be.  I was also reminded this weekend that we are called to live – not just exist and take up resources.  To live with purpose.  

Current society lures us into mindlessness and disengagement.  I often read how “technology” is destroying our ability to connect.  I would say it enables our inclinations to withdraw and hide in a society that looks to shame people.  The issue is not the technology.  The issue is we are continuously told we don’t measure up; we aren’t successful enough or sexy enough or young enough or rich enough.  So we hide in shame and technology can help us do that very well. 

To stop hiding and truly live in the space between the bookends, we must know that we live in a magnificent story in which we are called to be heroes.  To make a difference.  To live courageously and a little bit defiantly. 

————————————————————

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

…

“He’ll be coming and going” he had said. “One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down–and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

descriptions of Aslan, the Lion
C. S. Lewis, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”

————————————————————

Too often, we are told we should live safe lives.  That we can create enough rules to make everyone live forever – legislate away risk.  That to dream big is wrong and an abdication of our responsibilities.  Well that’s just not true.  We are doing a disservice to the hearts of our people – and especially our men – when we look to tame and tamp down the fires in our souls.  I’m not talking about out of control lives.  I’m talking about lives lived with passion, lives lived as if something bigger than ourselves mattered.  Bigger than our own little corner.

The time between the bookends of our birth and our death is wasted if we choose not to be heroes in our part of the grand story God has written. 

What’s your super power and what are you going to use it for?