this is my time, and these are my people

I wasn’t born yesterday.

I wasn’t around when my ancestors left Ireland, Scotland, and Germany in search of something worth leaving everything.

I’m glad I didn’t have to pick a side during the Civil War, fighting with friends and family over more than social media. I’m thankful I missed out on those early days before advanced medical technology and women’s rights and a Bible printed in my own language plus a thousand others.

I grew up hearing stories of how my grandfather served with the Navy during the second World War, but I wasn’t born until the middle of the Vietnam era to parents who were neither soldiers nor protestors. They didn’t attend Woodstock or even a single Billy Graham crusade. My mom loved Elvis and my dad loved the Beatles, and they loved each other right from the first.

This is my time, and these are my people.

I didn’t have cable TV or video games until junior high. A cell phone? I would have laughed. Summer was endless because the days were long and unbearably hot, and we had to think of ways to fill them. Those drawn-out days turned into dusk with a few kids from down the street, a scuffed-up baseball, and lightning bugs trapped in a jar. Our family had one car because my mom stayed home and had Tupperware parties and volunteered at my school wile my dad worked in the city.

Now I work in a tall building surrounded by asphalt, brick, and stone. Honking horns and wailing sirens blend with the clicking of computer keys until it’s time for the evening air laced with exhaust to follow me home where I spend what’s left of my day with the ones who make it all worthwhile.

I was put here for a reason, and I wasn’t put somewhere else for that very same reason.

This is my time, and these are my people.

Like the Jewish queen who went before the Persian king to intercede for her people, I was put here for such a time as this. My story may not be nearly as dramatic, but it is still filled with all the love, loss, joy, and challenge that create a memorable tale.

I want to love my people and not be afraid to show them. I want to embrace my time, every aching second of it. After all, I was not THEN. I am HERE and NOW, and I want to live each day present and accounted for in the way God planned for me before my eyes ever opened to this singular life stretched out before me.

God, ground me in the life you have given me, in the time you have allotted me, with the people you have offered me.

And may I never forget how little time I have left to make a difference.