woe to those who squander today straining toward tomorrow: will we savor this gift called time? (continued)

An unexpected--but delicious--venue for a spiritual lesson: join me two decades ago at my first Chinese banquet in Hong Kong. 

Course after course after course (I think there were 12 in all) I couldn't identify any course that was just a filler, just an appetizer, just something to get through, to get past, to get on with the main course which wasn't here yet...but it was coming...

Every course--in presentation, taste, texture--bore the marks of a master chef. Then it finally occurred to me: the reason no course seemed like a filler was because no course was a filler. To the master chef who had prepared this banquet especially for us, each course was main.

I confess that around course seven I grew distracted and began to think about past courses. Like that shark-fin soup: What was I thinking? Why didn't I get more of that when I had the opportunity? Then my mind would wander drifting ahead to future courses: Uhm, what ON EARTH am I going to do if chicken's-feet is on the menu?

And while I sat there reminiscing about and regretting the past...and daydreaming about and dreading the future...the course before me grew cold and I wondered, Why doesn't this taste better? 

Father God has regularly brought this experience back to my mind because I (we?) have a tendency to assume that "main" is out there, somewhere, but certainly not here. "Main" is after...we graduate... volunteer for a few years...land a good job...start a family...become debt-free...get that promotion...see the kids out of college...retire...die? 

And it's in moments like those when I'm treating this gift called time as though it were some unfortunate, overly-long prelude, that I hear the gentle whisper of Father God: "Child, I am the God who wastes no one's time. To me, this too is main."

Main is not behind us. Main is not way out ahead of us. To our heavenly Father, this moment--call it transition, pain, disappointment, education, uncertainty--is as full of potential as any moment has ever been and as any moment every will be for knowing God personally and making Him known practically.

This course is main.

(Enjoy it while it's hot.)