Today Is a Gift
After a grueling season of working twelve-hour days, seven days a week, my husband’s time off finally arrived! When you work in football, you do not have the freedom to choose your vacation time, but you do get almost four glorious weeks off each summer.
We had made our plans, filling these long-anticipated days with things that mattered to us, beginning with a week at Fellowship of Christian Athletes Coaches’ Camp, where we annually reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and recharge our spiritual batteries. After camp, we had plans to visit our children in Virginia Beach, spend a couple days in Savannah at a cute B&B, and visit friends at their beach house in the Florida panhandle. We would end our vacation by flying to Chicago, where my husband and I got engaged, to celebrate our anniversary in the city before heading out to the suburbs to spend time with our daughter’s family, which includes our two precious grandsons. Good plans to connect with those we love and reconnect with each other.
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring” (Jas 4:13-14 ESV).
But God had other plans. On our first full day of camp, my husband ruptured his quadricep tendon playing softball. Less than twenty-four hours after arriving, we were packing the car to drive home for surgery the following morning.
During the long drive home, with my husband laying uncomfortably in the backseat and my son behind the wheel, I had plenty of time to think. My thoughts revolved around my husband’s pain, his surgery the following morning, and what his road to recovery would entail. But later, as I unpacked my suitcase, I silently grieved the lost memories represented by each outfit I’d carefully selected for our many plans.
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand”( Prov. 19:21 ESV).
Disappointed and Discouraged
What can we do when God’s purposes leave us feeling disappointed and discouraged? Not only were all of our good plans interrupted, they were replaced by pain, immobility, and months of rehab for my husband—and weeks of caregiving for me.
In an effort to redeem being stuck at home, my “Martha” mindset made a mental list of the projects I could accomplish. But this thinking only led to more frustration when my role as caregiver consumed my time and energy. My frustration led me to the book of Psalms, where this verse captured my attention: “Teach us to number our days so that we may truly live and achieve wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12 VCE)
I had numbered my days, counting down and marking on the calendar the date when my husband would be off crutches and able to bend his knee again, freeing me from feeling constantly on call. Somehow, I don’t think this is what the psalmist had in mind!
Recognizing Time as a Gift
Then I came across an article by Greg Morse referring to time as the treasure slipping silently away. Morse pointed out, “‘Normal’ days (of which our lives actually consist) can inch past while we wait for the next noteworthy moment. We want photo-worthy weekends and shareable moments on social media; what we mostly get are Wednesday afternoons.”
Those noteworthy, photo-worthy vacation moments or Pinterest-worthy project pictures were what I wanted, and God had instead given us a summer full of Wednesday afternoons.
In the same article, Morse penned this question: “Will you receive normal days as spectacular gifts from a good God?” And it hit me that these days, such as they are, are the days we have. I cannot capture and enjoy the anticipated vacation days that were lost. But can I find joy in the days we have been gifted? Because eventually my husband will go back to work, seven days a week until the end of the football season. I want to have spent these days well.
Honoring God with Our Time
Isn’t this the essence of the Christian life—to spend our time well, following God day-by-day? We can make it more complicated, but we are only called to do our best within the circumstances we find ourselves. Nothing more, but certainly nothing less. God always has something for us to do.
The something for me to do, on these “Wednesday afternoons,” was to care for my husband and enjoy his company while he was home. Easier said than done, right? (I hope I am not the only one who struggles with the role of caregiver!) But things did get easier when I began looking for the ways God was showing up, meeting our needs, providing encouragement and inspiration.
Initially, God met our needs through our son, who drove us home after the injury, and the skilled hands of an orthopedic surgeon with a cancellation on his schedule the very next day. Encouragement came when our other son, immediately after learning his dad needed surgery, bought a plane ticket to fly down and help us. He met physical needs in those first few days, but far beyond that, he brought us joy. Just having him home elevated our spirits during the hardest days.
God also used friends and neighbors who brought us meals or simply shared a meal with us, those who showed up to play board games or share hilarious family tales, transforming those Wednesday afternoons into treasured memories.
As my husband’s pain subsided, his boredom and frustration increased. Like me, he had projects he longed to tackle. But there was joy in my heart each time I overheard him using his time to encourage others with a phone call or saw him immersed in God’s Word. These, too, are precious memories.
Inspiration came from God’s Word and the words of others, reminding me to make the best use of my time (Eph. 4:6) by showing up to do the work I am called to do. On those days when my patience was wearing thin, I reflected on the words of Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, who wrote, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
Having a heaven-focused attitude is what allows us to see beyond our circumstances. To appreciate the sacredness of every day. To show up and invest in people.
One way or another, each day we are given will be spent. How do we want to spend today?
and her husband of thirty-three years live in Gainesville, FL. They have moved a dozen times, raising three children along the way. They have added a son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and two precious grandsons to the mix. When she is not packing or unpacking, Ann enjoys serving as a mentor mom for MOPS International, joining Bible studies, meeting friends for coffee, taking long walks, and watching lots of football. Ann is passionate about using lessons from her journey to help other women navigate change in their own lives.
Photograph © Stefan Moertl, used with permission
