There are times when I think I need a time machine.
Time travel is always something people are intrigued with. For me, Back to the Future really set me off on the journey of traveling in time, but for others it just be the thought of seeing the world in a different era or culture. Yet every now and then we get those time travel experiences without the use of the “flux capacitor” or the flying Delorean. Last week I had a time traveling experience at a Dizmas concert (pictured above). They were playing in our hometown which basically means it’s going to be a high school reunion. And that’s exactly what it was.
I saw people I quite literally haven’t seen in 5 years. (For sake of shameless self-promotion you can actually go back 5 years in my blog and read about the experiences I had with some of my high school friends). It was just like traveling in time. I could only remember those people that I saw in their 18 year old, graduating senior body. When everyone was excited to be moving away, going to college, getting full time work, or even getting married. It honestly got me thinking about my own life. About how far I have come in my life, or where the Lord has taken me. What experiences I have had and what hardships have taken place. Where I have grown and where I have failed. These things, I believe, are good for me think about. It allows me to see the successes I have had so I can move forward, and it allows me to rethink where I have gone wrong so I can grow in that as well. But that’s the thing about time travel, sometimes we see what we didn’t want to. Maybe we see the things we regret or the things we wanted to forget. Not that we try to forget the past, but that maybe we just didn’t think it was important enough to remember. What I saw in some of my friends was age. Not just the obvious 5 year gap in their physical appearance, but really it was a 5 year gap in their experience. I guess somehow I thought that I was only one that did stuff for the past 5 years and they somehow stopped time and are just walking off the graduation platform. But the reality is that people change and grow over time. Whether it be for the better or for the worse, we are constantly being challenged by our experiences to see if they make use wise or show us to be fools.
So I guess I’m wondering what I would tell my 18 year old shaycam body if I was able to go back 5 years. What insight could I give to myself if given the opportunity? I know what it is, but not’s really that profound. It’s one of the major themes of the book of Proverbs. Simply put, I would tell myself to GET WISDOM. Wisdom allows us make choices and live our lives according to the work the Lord has placed before us. And since the Lord is wisdom, He is the perfect One to learn it from. Which means I need to continually pursue Him through reading the Bible and being in fellowship with Believers in Jesus Christ. That’s what I would tell myself. Because I don’t know where I would be today without the Savior. I don’t know what I would be caught up in without the Lord’s protection upon my life. Thankfully, getting wisdom isn’t something that ends. It’s something that continues for the rest of my life, until my dying day.
Finally, I want to close out this discussion by sharing something from the day I graduated. Since I attended a Christian school I had a Bible teacher, his name is Danny. He gave me a Bible that day which on the front read “Sherm (a nickname of mine) Numbers 6:24.” Numbers 6:24 reads,“The LORD bless you and keep you;” The Lord has done just that. I am blessed beyond measure and He continually keeps me safe in His arms. Now I say to you, may the Lord bless you and keep you.