Time Marches On

We’re trying to get back to some normalcy over here in Columbia, SC…

Roads are still closed, bridges are still out and we still have loads of folks without their homes and possessions.

But time doesn’t stand still, does it?  There’s a country song sung by Tracy Lawrence about how Time Marches On…

Time doesn’t stand still, no matter how much you want it to…that cuckoo clock keeps on ticking and that silly little bird pops his head out every hour to remind you how quickly time is passing.

We’re back at work and kids are back in daycare almost like nothing has disrupted our community.  Save the signs all over faucets and fountains that say “DO NOT DRINK” – and really should have the skull and crossbones to go with them to scare us all completely out of our wits.

I often find myself at work wondering where my day has gone.  Thirty or so emails and how-ever-many phone calls later I look up and it’s almost lunch time and I feel like I only just sat down at my computer.  Time marches on…

This morning for example, I had two employees out {one came in after lunch} and I found myself much like a chicken with it’s head cut off running around trying to figure things out.  I joked to a few others that I knew just enough about one person’s job to be dangerous…very, VERY dangerous.

I am kidding.   Sort of.

Sometimes I feel like Meg Ryan’s character in “You’ve Got Mail” – y’all it’s my absolute favorite movie.  And the part where she’s talking to her boyfriend “Frank” {Greg Kinnear}…she says to him: “What is it that I REALLY do?”

And then he proceeds to tell her: “You!  You are a lone reed….standing tall. Waving boldly, in the corrupt sands of commerce.”

Then she stands there sort of confused, perplexed, wondering: I am a lone reed….

I don’t even know what that means.  Is he trying to encourage her or challenge her…?

But her point of what she’s doing…does it even matter?  In the daily running around trying to do all these different things, while time is just marching so quickly past my face, I wonder that myself.  I certainly understand the value of what I’m doing.  A lot of people don’t have insurance…and need it.  My job provides a service.  We work our tails off to be sure that people have what they need.  My job does matter.  The emails, the phone calls, the applications and policy service – it all matters.  And it makes my day go by so quickly.

But on days like today when I know that there is food to be cooked, laundry to be cleaned, homes to be put back together – all for my neighbors….what is it that I am doing?

We all want to make a difference in some way.  We all want to help.  Some of us don’t really know how to, and others of us do.

I am trying to find rest in these words…”And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” – Colossians 3:17

I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and that’s being a wife, a mom and an employee.  I’m also going to look for ways I can serve those around me in the time that God has given me.

I’m thankful for my neighbor-friend, Courtney {who also, strangely enough, is from my home town – 3 hrs away, AND we went to the same high-school…weird}, who posted that her church needed volunteers to make desserts for the many meals they are preparing every day for those diplaced and those serving/working.

I found something I could do that makes me not feel so much like that “lone reed..” in my community’s time of need.  I’m making brownies tonight.  I’m making desserts for the next three nights and I cannot tell you the joy that fills my soul to be able to do this.

1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  Well y’all.  I’m gonna bake my little heart out and praise Jesus that I have a home, an oven and the ability to provide some sweets to all these wonderful, lovely people!