Lost in Translation

I began rummaging through one of my "memory boxes" last week. You know the kind . . . stuffed with things you just couldn't throw away from high school. I found things like the placemat that we used at my senior year swimming team banquet. It had clippings from the Hibbing paper about our swim team. As I looked at them, I remembered how I felt upon reading about myself (or seeing my time) in the paper. At one invitational I placed 15th in the 100 yard butterfly, which put me behind two other Hibbing swimmers. I felt bad about that. But at the regional meet, I took 5th place, and I had the best time from my team. That felt pretty good! I remember how I was mildly disappointed to have fallen short of my career goal of breaking one minute in the 100 yard fly. I swam a 1.00.37! Aarghh! I missed my career goal by .37 seconds.

I also looked at my handbook on Nintendo games. We had a club that was dedicated to them. I had drawn pictures, listed passwords, named all the games I'd "conquered," etc.

I also looked at some old pictures from years gone by. My brother as a little kid with his shirt off hoeing in the garden. A picture of my legs as I soared through the air to slam dunk a basketball (Okay, I'm only 5'7" now, but I was using a trampoline), taken by my sister who was lying on the ground.

Looking back causes various emotions to swell. Some happy. Some not so happy. But what I really think about much of those things is -- who cares? In view of eternity, the only things that matter are things of eternal significance.

And I wish I could go back to high school to live it for eternal purposes. Whether I broke one minute in the fly won't matter in heaven. But the chances I missed to share about Jesus Christ will matter. Those friends who never heard that Jesus Christ has opened the way for us to receive salvation through faith in Him . . . what about them?

Lord, help me to center my life around You. Help me to beat down that which squanders my energy for You with a consuming passion for Your glory.