Measured in moments; minutes, seconds, days, weeks, months, years. Measured in hugs, in smiles, in second glances from far away, in waves, in feet hitting pavement, in bare feet feeling the sand between toes, and in sitting down at the dinner table. Measured in what we say, what we do, how we say it, how we do it. Measured in hellos and in goodbyes, or lack thereof. Measured in hard conversations, tears, tough questions, and words read on a page.
Time is measured in what it took to get between here and there.
Maybe it’s the big game everyone’s looking forward to. Maybe it’s the big trip ahead. Maybe it’s just counting down the hours until work is over. Maybe it’s counting down the weeks or days until launch. Maybe it’s counting down the days until you move away from home. Maybe it’s in the steps it takes to get your water from a well. Maybe it’s in the amount of time it takes for dinner to be placed on the table. Maybe it’s just the hours in a day and you’re fighting, truly fighting, to just make it though the next moment.
Maybe it’s dreaming of that day you’ll finally meet “Prince Charming.” Maybe it’s in the daydreams in school and classes you’d rather not be in. Maybe it’s even in a mistake or words you can’t take back.
It’s measured everywhere.
But what happens between this moment and that moment?
Beauty is what happens.
Babies are born and they grow up. Flowers grow. Deer pant near streams of water and prance in tall grass. The sand falls between the crack in the hourglass and dishes from dinner get cleaned, rest is assured. Families go on vacations and make memories on snow capped mountains. Tears fall and lead to strength. Hard Questions are asked and they lead to growth. Letters can be and are written, they are read, sometimes kept.
Hearts are broken and then won for Christ. Deep realizations can happen over time: It doesn’t take being whole to still be effective in the kingdom. All you need is Christ in You and He picks up the rest of the slack in time.
It’s in the “between” where we find Him shining brightest if we are looking hard enough.
I want my Race to be defined wholly by the moments that take my breath away and less by counting down until the next best thing. I want to live so completely present and bold that I have no idea where time has gone. I want to be so complete in my Identity in Christ by the end of this Race that I have no problem coming back stronger, healed, and ready to conquer time by having forgiven, one step at a time, always forward, always right there.
His,
Ashley
