Change

Before I moved to Lowell and started attending Ada Bible Church, I lived out by Grand Valley State University, and would often attend a similar church called Mars Hill in Grandville, MI. The pastor at Mars Hill is Rob Bell, and he's an incredibly gifted speaker - especially when it comes to taking wordy or complex, deep content from the Bible, and breaking it down in a way that's easy to comprehend both the central themes, but also how they relate to you personally. Coincidentally, in a small group session at Ada Bible, I was introduced to a modern Bible study that uses short videos to communicate content for the group discussion... and the videos feature none other than Rob Bell. The videos are called NOOMAs, and I highly recommend that you check them out. You can find portions of them on the NOOMA Myspace page. Rob's latest installment is titled 'TODAY", and it talks about how much energy we spend living in the 'good 'ol days'. He talks of how yesterday is in the past, and tomorrow is uncertain - all we have is today... and if so much of our energy is spent dwelling on how things used to be, our arms aren't free to fully embrace the day that God has given us right here and now.

After watching the premiere of 'TODAY' - as with all of the episodes - I began to think about what I just saw, and how it pertains to me. In a way, I've embraced today, but in many ways... I haven't. Though I am extremely happily married, sometimes I find myself wishing I was able to come and go like I used to. In college, my friends and I would stay up all night, go to the bar when we wanted, and really only had to worry about ourselves. There were a couple years there where I laughed at the idea of going to church on Sunday. Anyway, I find myself thinking how much fun we had in college... those were the good ol' days. But really, if those were the best years of my life, then what do I have to look forward to right now and the days ahead?

Rather than rest on my laurels, rather than always looking in the rear-view mirror... maybe it's time to keep my eyes on the road ahead. I think about the time I had with my grandparents when I was younger - and they are such special memories of mine. Now that Grandpa has moved on... now that change has come around... I'm finding that the time I spend with my Grandma every Friday at lunch is more special than I could have imagined. I'm actually creating better days today than I had in the past... and I'm realizing now that I can do that in any situation. It's actually quite exciting.

I just celebrated my 2-year anniversary with Melissa, and rather than look back at the great times we had when we first met, I'm looking forward to today, and the many days that God has in store for us. Things change, and we have to deal with it. Things will never be the way they used to be. It's nice to have the memories, but it's a new day, and it's time to create new memories. I like the way John Mayer put it... "I'd like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve."