Time…

I carried the empty coffee cup around in the back seat of my truck for over a year. Perhaps it earns the title of the World’s Most Traveled Coffee Cup having tagged along for multiple trips out of state chasing the little gold and green fish, properly named Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass, which I have an ongoing love affair with, a multitude of similar adventures in search of the elusive whitetail deer that I develop an addiction to the pursuit of each Fall, and countless ventures here, there, and yonder. All tallied up, the grand total of miles that coffee cup accompanied me as my passenger rivals the number of times politicians tell us half-truths, but who’s counting? Anyway, the thought may be drifting through your mind, “Why was the cup in  your truck in the first place?” Glad you asked, because the answer to that question is at the heart of this whole little writing…

In early February 2018 I made the trek from my hometown to one of my favorite places on Planet Earth – Toledo Bend – to meet up with a great friend/father figure and one of my favorite fishing partners, Skipper. After the day of fishing and prior to my 2 hour trip back home, he offered me a cup of coffee to keep me fresh for the drive. Having plans already to drive back to meet him and fish again the following Saturday, I didn’t hesitate to accept the offer with full intention of returning it to him then. And then life happened. A family emergency here, a tennis tournament for my son there, and a few other unplanned occurrences later (not the least of which was a hip replacement surgery for Skipper), and an entire year had gone by without my truck ever making the return trip for fishing and delivering of the aforementioned coffee cup. Good thing the FedEx shipping rate wasn’t at play on that little delivery! Life happened…and Time got away from me.  So when March 2019 rolled around and I finally found myself at the little pond on the Louisiana/Texas border, my first words to my friend were, “Hey, I’ve got something for you.” His reply? “Coffee Cup!” Indeed it was – he hadn’t forgotten, because it was a gift to him from someone as dear to him as he is to me. The intended week of separation had turned into more than a year, but the reunion had finally transpired.

Now I’ve got to pose the question: Does time ever get away from you? Do you sometimes have all intentions of doing such and such, visiting so and so, calling up that individual that has been on your mind for some time, but because of whatever set of circumstances, you just never get around to it? It happens, and before we know it, days, weeks, months, even years slip by with those intended tasks still left undone. I’m by no means a teller of the future, but one thing I know for sure is that each of us has a limited amount of time here on Earth. Every tic of the clock that we allow to slip by without completing those things that we intend is one tic that we’ll never get back. Maybe it’s that reality that prompted the Apostle Paul to encourage the Ephesian believers to “make the most of every opportunity…” (Ephesians 5:16). So friends, whatever “it” is…the task to complete, the person to express love to, the apology to make, the reconciliation to seek…whatever “it” is – make the most of the opportunities you have to cause it to become a reality. You never know when moments will turn to months and the next thing you know, you are the proud holder of the World’s Most Traveled Coffee Cup still without having done the important thing called “it”.

Time…it has a tendency to march right on. And while it was over a year late, the cup did get delivered and we did get to make another fishing trip. A bunch of recollections on the past, some laughs about the present, and a few serious conversations about things that actually matter coupled with the catching of some of the slimy specimens we were searching for later, and I was back in the truck making the 2 hour drive back home…without a coffee cup this time! Maybe next time! Whether your “it” includes Toledo Bend, or whether your “it” pertains to something totally different, somewhere along the way, as we’re each striving to get it all done before time gets away from us, I’ll see you in the Great Outdoors!