"Borrowed Time"

Today I have unanswered email. Ok, I've opened them and I then marked them as unread so that I'll remember to address them later. They are all projects that I need to take care of, but I'm not feeling it today.

It's 9-11. This morning I took the time to listen to our old friends Steve and Megan Scheiber in an interview with James Dobson. Surreal. A discussion between my earliest parenting teacher and my latest parenting teachers. The former was the only Christian parenting expert I'd ever heard of so I read his books and listened to his radio programs. The latter couple developed a newer more specific curriculum while Steve was pastoring our church.  Fran and I and two of our sons participated when they recorded a class series so that it could be shared farther than the reach of the Scheibners ability to present in person. Today's podcast segment discussed Steve's experience as an American Airlines pilot during 9-11 and the book, In My Seat, that Megan wrote about it. (She wrote this after their oldest son made a movie by the same title.) The parenting curriculum will be discussed in more detail in a second podcast tomorrow.

It was a foggy morning as I drove the back roads to meet a friend at a cafe halfway between where we each live. While listening to the radio in the car, I cried as a moment of silence commenced at 8:46am. I'd never really connected with the precise time the first plane hit. The plane that Steve was supposed to be flying. A few more minutes in the scheduling queue and Steve would have been flying that plane rather than Tom McGuinness who lost his life that day. Timing. God's timing.

As Jan and I chatted over breakfast, we talked about parenting. It had been a long time, and in this season of our lives, we often consider how we raised our kids, and wonder if we could have done anything better. In the end, as we share and learn from each other, we realize that no matter what, our God is big enough to make our kids into the grown-ups He wants them to be. We considered together what we are doing to serve in our church and community. We encouraged each other. I miss getting together with Jan. It is always time well spent.

This evening I watched Steve on TheBlazeTV as he was interviewed by Glenn Beck. Both Glenn and Steve have been working passionately about supporting the family in hopes of improving the culture from the ground up. The politics of our nation are the outward symptom of the family falling apart and losing track of the God who created them. It reminded me of the days following the election of 2012. Almost instantly as the election results came in, I threw in the political towel. I pondered my time and realized my work should be in helping to restore America's integrity by helping change families. Bring them back together and give them hope. I only have so much time in my daily life and working campaigns or running for office were not cutting it. I could no longer spend my finite amount of time on things that aren't effective.

Each of us is blessed to wake up each morning. Steve has a very vivid story and a commorative day that reminds him why he is doing what he is doing. We don't all have that, but that doesn't mean we aren't also living on borrowed time. We must all consider our time and how we spend it.

"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12.