In the Meantime

A former professor of mine at Duke, the late Dr. Carlyle Marney, once said this powerful statement in class: “most of life is lived in the meantime, and unless one learns to live life in the meantime, one is less than half alive!” What did Marney mean by that? Well, I think he meant to remind us that even though much of life is lived doing things like standing in line at Wal Mart, or sitting at traffic signals, or waiting for your number to be called at the DMV, life is still going on even then. Sometimes we are tempted to think that life is only really lived on the weekends. But if we wait to live only then, we’re missing five-sevenths of our time here on earth! Occasionally, I hear people saying things like, “I can’t wait for my next vacation!” I understand the feeling, but if you wait for vacations to be fully alive, that only gives you 2 or 3 out of 52 weeks a year to live!
What’s my point? Live every day! Live every moment of every day! Don’t wait for your graduation to live; don’t wait to land your ideal job; don’t wait until you’re married or until the kids are all grown, or until you retire. Live life every second, even the “in the meantime” moments! The Psalmist once wrote “teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) I’ve calculated that even if I live to be 90 years old, I will have only 32,850 days here on earth, plus a few extra ones added in for the leap years. That doesn’t seem very long, and now I am realizing that every day is a precious gift. Again the Psalmist wrote, “this is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it!” (Psalm 118:24) Live your life, even “in the meantime!”