The Greatest Hits
I was sitting at home, and I came across this box. Inside the box was a notebook. It was old. The bindings were torn, the cover was missing, most of the edges were frayed, and some of the writing was faded. Based on the dates on some of the pages, this notebook was important between 2008 and 2009. Inside were various writings––notes to self, notes between friends, devotions, lists, assignments––everything. A few things caught my attention right away. One, my handwriting was pristine which means I had A LOT of time of my hands. Nowadays I’m so rushed to get from one thing to the next that anything I’ve written down was certain done with haste and it shows. Two, it was evident that God was my most important relationship. This entire notebook was basically a letter to God in one fashion or another.
I remember some of those days and I remember that I desperately needed God. I called on God for just about everything. It was as if I needed God’s input on just about everything. There was one other thing that caught my attention. I was preparing for a group devotional that I was leading, and the topic and title of the devotion was called “The Greatest Hits”. The idea of the exercise came from the TV show, “Lost.” If you haven’t seen it, spoiler alert! In the episode where Charlie dies, he writes out a list. If you’ll remember, Charlie was a musician, and he was in a band. Charlie’s list was a list of what he considered some of his greatest accomplishments. He called it his greatest hits––a play on words as though a band’s greatest hits album. Well, in this exercise, everyone is to list out their greatest hits. Those pivotal life moments that we look back on in reflection and think, this is how I became the person I am today.
My list started off…
Meeting Mrs. Carter (my 4th grade teacher)
Surviving the river wild (3rd grade near death experience)
Fellowship Youth Camp
Surviving…
But the further I got down the list the more the sentences started off with the word “Surviving…” as if my life up until that point had been spent on the battle ground and I was surviving one war after the next. “Surviving” was in front of “high school” as if high school was a hard time in my life. Looking back, that could not be further from the truth.
Actually, looking back, my life has been one epic story after the next. A cascade of near misses, but generally it’s been pretty eventful. I have stories for days, most of you are part of some of those stories and I love that. Now that I’m in my 30s that list would look a lot different now, fuller, but definitely different. It would highlight some pretty solid hits. It wouldn’t be an ode to a life I wish I didn’t live, but it’d pay homage to some of the greatest things and greatest people I’ve ever met.
I looked at the notebook for a while. I flipped through the pages. I saw a life living and unfolding before my eyes. I saw some of the best years of my life. I never imagined I’d be at a place where I would look back on some of the seemingly most tumultuous times of my life and wish to God I could go back even if for just a few minutes.
The point is, while I was young and busy trying to “survive” apparently everything I may have missed out on what I should have just been enjoying for what it was. From the very first day of college, I knew those days were numbered. I knew those were going to be some interesting times. I knew then I would need to appreciate those times, but then the times started, and we were off to the races.
I survived. I am a survivor. But maybe the battle was deep inside me somewhere. Somewhere the scars are a little less visible. Somewhere other people can’t readily see. We are all survivors because we made it to this point. Because we have something to look forward to. Because we chose to.
Ya know what I say––I say we keep on surviving. I say we keep on living. I say we keep moving forward because sitting here pondering on the past isn’t going to do anything but steal the joy that we have today. That was a chapter in life, and it was a great chapter and I loved and hated it as I do with any chapter but it’s a new chapter and we have to make the most of it and we can’t very well do that if all we do is wish we can go back to the previous chapter. Yeah, they were great times, but who says what’s up ahead can’t be equally as great if not better.
Only one way to find out.