Time is a thief

On this day (November 22) thirteen years ago, I asked Liezel to be my girlfriend. We were seriously just kids—filled with the joy of life and the butterflies that come with young love. But if someone from the future visited 15-year-old Rhidge and told him that this girl who just became his girlfriend would eventually become his wife, I’d be shocked. Marriage?! What 15-year-old is thinking about marriage?! We were just two googly-eyed young lovers excited to be with each other. But oh, how fast time flies.

On this day seven months ago, our daughter was born. Who would’ve thunk that these two kids who met at a Pathfinder camporee in 2012 would eventually get married and have their first baby in America’s Finest City? The life I’m living right now seemed like a far, distant dream when I was 15. But oh, how fast time flies.

Time is a thief.

Here’s a lesson Jesus has been teaching me lately: life is best lived one moment at a time.

I’ve definitely tried to take things one day at a time. But I feel like the Lord is inviting me to go a little deeper—not to frame life in 24-hour blocks, but to bring Him into everything, all the time. To hold His hand while I’m holding Marleigh. To talk to Him while I’m choosing avocados in Trader Joe’s. To listen to Him as I’m making a single slide for my sermon. Bringing Jesus into everything, all the time, allows me to savor every second of the life He has given me.

And when I look back on these moments, I’m reminded of how limited my perspective really is. I had no idea what God was preparing. I still don’t. None of us do. But He keeps making things beautiful in ways we could’ve never predicted.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11

-Pastor Rhidge