Know What is Important

It won’t be but about four more days and we’ll be saying, “Where has the summer gone?” I know, I know, we’ve just started, but it seems like we hurtle from one thing on our calendars to the next, stopping only briefly for food and rest. The summer is as packed as the rest of our year, with this trip, that wedding, another vacation, and we must take time to enjoy our time off.
If I seem a little cynical, I am. I can’t change what is, but I do so long for the days of summer that seemed endless…a whole three months of time to fill with whatever came into a boy’s head. Yes, there was work, and lots of it. We moved irrigation pipe and ran cattle on the farm, besides the tractor-driving and the other things that would crop up from time to time. Dad would sometimes have me work with him on his second job in plumbing and electrical service. And there were always green beans to pick, eggs to gather, corn to hoe, yard to mow, or potatoes to dig. If that wasn’t enough, there were dishes to wash, laundry to hang on the line, a floor to sweep and mop, or a room to pick up. We never lacked for anything to do.
Yet, it seemed that the days would last forever, and September and school were far, far away. Now, though, they are just around the corner, and can Thanksgiving be far behind? Then comes the Christmas “stuff” and the new year is fast upon us…another year older, but hopefully not deeper in debt, to borrow a phrase.
Thankfully, I’m not sitting home looking at the help wanted ads and posting a resume on some web site that will never see the virtual light of day. If I was doing that, the days truly would drag on and on…I want no part of that. I have a job to go to, and am grateful for what it provides. Sometimes in the middle of the turmoil, I have to stop and remember to thank God for it, else I lose sight of what is important and what is not. And, no, I don’t mean that the job is all important. I mean that my relationship with the God that provides all, and my relationship with other people are what are truly important.
So, as you too progress through these summer days along with all the rest of us, remember what really is important, and what is just on the periphery.
I asked an older gentleman who was having difficulty getting into the home this afternoon (he was a visitor, not a resident) how he was doing. I asked because he paused for some breaths before going into the home. It had been a short walk from his vehicle and there were no steps. Obviously, he had some kind of medical issue that caused his shortness of breath. I was asking him to give him an opening to ask for help. He said instead, “I am blessed.” Not expecting that answer, I asked him if he needed help. He instead volunteered to help me finish my job (the reason I was out there in the first place). I said I was fine, but did hold the door open for him as he went in.
That man knew what was important.