The Fight of My Life

In high school I was a busy man; heck, I still feel like a busy man. Back in the day, though, every single day of my life was run, run, run, and go, go, go. I was involved with sports, and I wanted to be involved in every little thing that happened with friends after school. When you're young, these things don't seem to bug you as much (I know, I know... I'm still very young). I was free from responsibilities for the most part; the only thing I had to worry about was doing my homework and having some fun.

My senior year in high school was probably the coolest overall, just because I was able to go on an overseas trip to Italy and Spain. But before we would embark on that trip, we had the basketball season to finish up.

The last game of the year was going to be against one of our big rivals: Maryville Apostolic. We were especially looking forward to it. Earlier in the season they had beat us, barely; it wasn't going to happen again. But the game before (or perhaps two games before...) had an untimely fate for me. There I was... chasing a loose rebound when it happened... a rather large player on the other team tripped and fell into my leg, which sent me to the floor with a broken leg. This injury left me unable to finish the season, forcing me to painfully watch the remaining game(s).

Later upon review, it was proven on tape that this player tripped over a teammate of mine (thanks Deryk...).

Shortly thereafter, I left for Spain. My pink cast was off my leg (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that detail earlier...), but I was still required to wear a walking cast for the vast majority of the trip. As a rambunctious teenager, I did not like the change of pace. I was used to being able to run around without cares of what was going on around me; I didn't want this constraint. So after much frustration, I decided to ask the Lord what He was trying to teach me. What was that? "Slow down."

And over four years later, I'm still trying to maintain that perspective. For me it is a hard thing; as a college kid, I get up and drive across town to school. If I work, I head straight from school to work. There's little time to sit down and relax. But I still need to "slow down" and have time to take care of things. I need to "slow down" and spend time with the Lord. I need to "slow down" so that I can be sensitive to His voice throughout the day.

It wasn't easy then, and it wasn't easy now. But my trip to Spain was much better just because I couldn't do as much. I was forced to rest; my favorite part was going on top of the roof alone with my guitar and just singing songs to the Lord at night. That was birthed from my having to slow down.

And I still need that desperately. If I'm running and gunning, not only do physical things fall apart (like my bedroom, yikes!), but spiritually too. Without a healthy balance, nothing can be maintained. Relationships, cleaning, responsibilities... they all take time. And the only way to take care of them is to "slow down."

And, in my opinion, slowing down is the best way to get the most out of things. You can rush through a chapter of a book to let you "read more," or you can slowly make your way through it, enjoying and retaining what you've read. Doing more does not mean you're enjoying more. Most of the best times I've enjoyed with Hannah haven't been due to lots of activity; rather, when we're relaxed, there's a spontaneity that seems to arise that let's whatever situation we're in become delightful to us. And it seems whenever we've been worried about having enough "us" time have been filled with some fun arguments and lots of stress.

So, I'm still in the battle. I have slowed down, but I'm still learning on how to balance things properly. There's school, work, relationships, responsibilities, ect... and all of them require my time. But worry doesn't help anything; it will likely lead to stress. Doing nothing sure won't fix anything either; then nothing would change. Somewhere in the middle is that blessed place that I'm in the process of finding, and maintaining. And perhaps simplicity is just where I'll find that answer. In fact, I'm getting to be pretty sure of it. Actually, I am sure that simplicity is the key.

Simplicity in thinking, simplicity in planning, simplicity... I will "slow down." And I will enjoy every aspect of life all the more for it.