Meet at Burger King
The other day I found a voice recorder in my garage. It had been sitting in the bottom of a box for the last 13 years, and to my surprise, when I put a battery in it, I started listened to all the messages I recorded to myself 13 years ago. Song ideas, reminders, melodies, phone numbers, and names of people I needed to call. One message was simply my son saying, “Hi dad.” I’ve listened to that one about 25 times now. I can’t tell you why it means so much…but it does. There’s even a recording of him learning to play the drums. He plays better than me (or at least he thinks he does) at this point, but at the time of the recording, he was trying the new beat I had just taught him. Time flies.
I found odd messages too. “I see a pickup truck…cucumber.” I have no idea what that meant. “Buy the fan motor today.” I had so many short messages of song titles and artists. “New song, ‘Open the eyes of my heart’.”
“Buy Diana Krall CD.” I think she’s released 8 CDs since then so I don’t know where to start.
“Meet Jim at Burger King.” “Look for speaker wire.” Odd stuff. Then there were the messages with phone numbers. “Call Ed. 540-436-xxxx.” Call Henry xxx-xxx-xxxx…and so on. Lots of those, so…I decided to call. Thirteen years later. I didn’t really have a plan. I just started calling the numbers to say, “Hey, this is Stefan. I just found a message that I was supposed to give you a call….13 years ago.” I’ve only partially worked through the list, and some of the numbers are out of service. I’ll let you know if I reach anyone, but the one thing I realized: I had a 13 year old still unfinished “to do list.”
It’s obviously, technically, “done” at this point, but still, as I listen to my pastor’s sermons this summer at church, often related to busyness, I’m reminded to just slow down. If your plate’s too full, take some things off. Focus on what’s important. Put your attention, time, and energy into what really matters. At the top of that list…Jesus. Joy. Love, prayer, and things eternal. Focus on loving those around you, forgiving those who’ve wronged you, and investing your time, talents, and resources into the things of God.
Thirteen years from now you may have a list of undone tasks, and unfinished dreams, but I hope that beaming out of all that comes one beautiful bright message to your your heavenly Father, “Hi Dad.” That’ll put a smile on His face every time.
There’s no place like HOPE,
Stefan