Before They’re Gone
Around the time I discovered Relient K and sang “Pink Tux to the Prom” incessantly with my best friend and her brother, I bought an album, The Beautiful Letdown, by a band called Switchfoot. The album is fantastic, and in an age of downloading singles, it’s one of those albums that I love listening to straight through. Its song “Redemption” is one of my all-time most favorite songs. Anyway, another one of the songs is called “Gone” and makes some pretty poignant points.
She said, he said, live like no tomorrow
Everyday we borrow brings us
One step closer to the edge. Infinity.
Where’s your treasure, where’s your hope,
If you get the world and lose your soul?
She pretends like she pretends like
she’s immortal.
Don’t say so long, and throw yourself wrong
This could be your big chance to make-up
Today will soon be
Gone, like yesterday is gone
Like history is gone
The world keeps spinning on
You’re going, going,
Gone, like summer break is gone,
Like Saturday is gone
Just try and prove me wrong and
pretend like you’re immortal.
… Life is a day that doesn’t last for long.
There are a lot of things that I could say about this song, but I chose to include it today because it connects well with something that I’ve been thinking a lot about as I get ready to start my last-ever semester of college. Change. And what that implies for the people who are in my life for whatever length of time.
When I look at mental (and physical) images of freshman year, and compare them with images of senior year, I can’t help but notice that some things are missing. Two of my dearest friends from school graduated in December. Another friend passed away last June. Thinking enough about losing the others in the freshman crew easily sets me off into tears. I’ve been incredibly blessed to be around such amazing people, but thinking of how relationships change reminded me that when we’re told “there is a time for everything,” we need to remember that our time with people is limited, too.
I’ve mentioned before, I believe in my very first post, that exchanges of any length can be opportunities to show Christ’s love. For example, I try not to glare at other drivers while I’m on the road- you never know what kind of day they’re having, or what role they might play in your life later, etc.
In case you were getting the idea that I’m this wonderful little person who trots around sharing joy and love with every single person she sees, let me quickly tell you that this is not true. Sometimes one’s facial muscles react before the brain, as one’s tongue often has a habit of doing. Sometimes- often- I sit there and think “I should really go say hi to so-n-so and see how they’re doing. But, but- oh, I should really do it”‘ and then the window of opportunity closes. It’s something that I’m praying about and working on, and not only in brief exchanges. Even the people who it seems like will be around me forever, like my family and my best friends of a decade or so, should not be taken for granted, not only in the sense that I should be grateful for them, but I should be grateful for opportunities to serve and love them, too.
I’m praying that God opens my eyes to all of those around me, and gives me the courage to love them as He would. Not many things are forever.
