Just a Vapor!

Ok, Who is this kid on the tire swing?

Well, first of all, this is no ordinary tire swing, this is actually a real, honest to goodness X-Wing Fighter, and this is no ordinary kid. This is the one and only Luke Skywalker!

I was seven, this was "THE" tire swing, and it hung at my Uncle Ron and Aunt Linda's house. Something absolutely fantastic would happen every time you climbed on it. It transformed into whatever you could imagine it to be.

 My Uncle Ron  had introduced me to The Empire Strikes Back that summer, and my seven year old world was officially rocked. I would spend my turn on the tire swing blasting Tie Fighters out of space (In a back and forth flight plan of course) and loving every minute of it.

In fact, as long as the swing was in motion, you could not convince me that it was not an X-Wing spaceship. After all,I was the one screaming at my droid R2D2 to repair the hyper-drive motivator amid laser blasts. Desperately trying my best to avoid losing my ship to a first year empire pilot. As long as that tire was in motion you could not convince me that the stick I had hanging from my belt was not a light saber, or that I was not Luke Skywalker.

Life is a lot like that tire swing.

"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. "
~James 4:13-15

James tells us that life is like a vapor. Like when you pull the lid off of a pot of spaghetti on the stove, it wisps up and away. That is what our time on the tire swing of life is like. Each of us see our tire swing ride as something else. For some it is a constant drive to gain significance  and approval, for others it is an endless cycle of finding love and acceptance in every source but the right one. But the fact remains that life is just a few swings.

Let's look at the tire for a minute.

There will come a time when the tire that we ride will come to a stop, our turn will be over, and the X-Wing Fighter will be recognized for what it was all along...a tire. Just a turn on the swing.

I want to start this week off with just a reminder for all of us that we only have one turn. We take it for granted that everyone will come home safe tonight. The kids will be waiting to play ninja turtles and princesses. Our spouse will be there to help us hold the X-Wing fighter together as we fly through space. Our lights will come on when we flip the switch and clean water will come out of the pipe in the wall. The car...well the car will always be ready to give up the ghost.

We tend to believe that if we don't give it our best on the job today, that there will be another chance tomorrow to "Really give it our all", and that there will only need to be a few more paydays to finally be financially secure enough to take that family vacation.

The tire swings.

We sit through the preaching service and miss what the Pastor is bringing because after all, we have got a lot on our mind. We mumble through the praise and worship time worried about what other X-Wing pilots will think if we raise a hand, or shed a tear. (These are most definitely not the actions of a well trained pilot of the rebellion!)

The tire swings.

We just assume that there will always be time to pick up the Bible and read its pages freely.

We assume:

 There will be another chance to be the light God made us to be.
We will have another chance to make things right with our spouse. 
That our children will be waiting to play with us.
We will all meet at the dinner table.
There will be that loved on at the other end of the phone line for us to tell they are loved.

The tire swings.

We have plenty of time to give God. We have plenty of opportunities to put His name on the ears of those around us.
See, we assume that since this star fighter has few interstellar hours logged on it, and since the companion droid has little to no carbon scoring, we are set.

The tire swings.

You know, I loved that swing at my Uncle Ron's house. There was one thing however that pulled that swing to a stop without fail. Dad's voice announcing that it was time to stop and go home. (The emperor who could use the force to bring even the most engaging battles to a screeching halt!)

Whenever that happened and I got down from the swing, I looked back over my shoulder and I saw my X-Wing Fighter for what it always had been... a tire swing, with a worn yellow rope.

One day our Father is going to call us by name, and it will be time to go home. This life will stop swinging, and what we thought we had will be revealed to us for what it always was.

A gift.

We create the life we have we with our responses to what He allows. Like it or not, recognize it or not, call it whatever you have chosen to create it to be.

 It is in fact a gift.

 One turn.

One swing.

See it for what it is today! Take time to thank God for the gift, and to tell someone that you love them.

Climbing with you,

~Dan