Creating and Savoring Life’s Special Moments
Spring is trying to come early in Auburn, Alabama. And today, we are getting that first spring-like rain shower, the slow and gradual rain that soaks the soil and makes plants sprout and bloom. The patter of rain is a formal one, like a new season’s ceremonial drumbeat that is formally ushering in new life. A woodpecker is pecking a tree and the birds chirp as if they are collaborators with the rain.
I am creating and savoring these moments on this lazy Saturday morning as I sip a hot cup of coffee and ponder the fragility and brevity of life. The ability to sense and capture simple moments and embed them into the hard drive of your soul is one of our most special gifts for life. I know my day will become busier and that other sounds will drive out the rain or that the rain will stop and the phone will ring. There will be chores to do and the pressures of life will rear their heads soon; but in these few minutes, I can be still and hear God.
Not every morning will be like this morning. Some will be colder and more stressful. But morning is usually my best time of day for contemplation. But we can create and savor special moments even in our hectic times during the day and night. Mankind has devised lots of ways to compete with our contemplative moods. Maybe the devil has designed busyness, stress, noise and electronic entertainment to wall us off from God.
Savoring life’s best moments usually mean we have to turn some gadget off or walk out of an important meeting or ask others around us to be quiet. It means leaving the television, computer screen, setting down the cell phone and opting to sit alone on the front porch in the dark. Savoring life means developing the proper habits: finding something meaningful to read and making yourself read for ten minutes each day, or finding a special place of refuge like a closet or park bench where you can sit still and escape distraction.
You cannot truly savor life’s best moments unless you spend time with the people you love. The best things in life are usually free and there’s no place like home to experience life’s best memories.
It is important to learn to savor special moments even as we are experiencing life’s toughest events. Even when we are sick, abandoned, unemployed, incarcerated or depressed; we can still punch through life’s cold winds and create and savor moments. Savoring moments and letting God seep into our souls in these times may become the very pathway by which we escape and conquer life’s harsher captivity.
Creating and savoring special moments may require us to restore fellowship with someone we love but who needs forgiveness. We may need to get out of our own self-centeredness and volunteer to help the hurting or work with children. Helping others and watching the innocence of children can make for some real special life moments.
When we work at capturing and savoring life’s moments, God senses our still mind and surrendered heart ; then He always finds a way to break through to us, even if it is in the few moments we stop to consider the patter of raindrops on a March morning.