I had the honor and privilege to travel back to West Virginia this past weekend. We gathered with my parents, and siblings at Ogelbay Resort, outside of Wheeling, West Virginia, and oh how the memories came back. I grew up playing soccer at Ogelbay as a kid, and attending leadership training events there with Young Life as a teenager. Until we were on the grounds of Ogelbay, I had forgotten about all of the fun times and memories from my many visits, and I was a little taken aback by all of the thoughts and images that have flooded my mind since.

As some of you may know, I have moved around quite a bit, both as a child and certainly as an adult. And as blessed as I have been in my short life, moving around the country has stolen a bit of my memory. I realized this even more, as my family and I laughed our way through trays and trays of slides from when my siblings and I were all little children. I was amazed at how little I remembered. There were the big moments, but the little things, the layout of our old homes for instance did not register in my mind. My how fleeting life truly is.

I have been thinking a lot today about memories, and the journey that I have chosen to walk. Life is so very fragile, and memories are so very fleeting, it truly makes you want to hold on too today. I am uncertain if I will have the same opportunity to sit around with my boys Gideon and Abel with their wives and children and laugh at the very memories that we are creating today. I am however certain that I want to make our memories count for something. I have big dreams for my sons that are beyond themselves. I have big dreams for our family and my church that will last longer than a moment. But as it says in the book of James, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Our hopes and dreams are not always God’s hopes and dreams for our lives. Just as the imperfect life that I have lived, and the broken pieces and dreams that I have left along the way, are not what God had intended for me either. All we have is today! This very day that we are living can become one of the most memorable and momentous if we desire it too. Live today as if will be your last. Don’t hold on to anything too long, and don’t forget to give yourself away to today!

January 13, 2010 <> Michael Warneke

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