“Slow Down. Enjoy Life. It Gets Faster”

The older you get, the more you appreciate things learned early in life. For example, when I was younger, I was studious, but could never see how things applied to me.

Older folk always said, “Slow down, enjoy life, it gets faster as you get older.” I had no idea until someone hit the VCR fast forward on my life. I didn’t understand socks and underwear are amazing gifts. Nor did I understand love, now I get it every time I wake up and see my wife Hallie, sleeping peacefully.

I didn’t understand that what you eat and drink, does catch up to you. Younger me assumed it was game of tag and I’d always win. I didn’t understand why people have to die (sometimes I still don’t). But I know now, that many people who have passed in my life are far better off than me now.

I didn’t understand that your family (mom & dad) get older too. The first day I realized this, it crushed me. Nonetheless, on a lighter note, I didn’t realize how I’d use a school education. The average American child spends 8,884 hours in school over 9 years. That means that a child is in school for 8,884 hours over 9 years. There are 78,840 hours in 9 years. That’s nearly 12% of their lives over a 9 year period. And the main goal that entire time, is to learn. About 100% of that time, the child is wondering: “Where am I going to use this in real life?”

Now that I am older and a teacher myself, I know a little better. I love literature but sometimes, English class was the worst for me.

It felt like someone was always criticizing little details of what I said (I am glad they did, because words matter). Then one day we were discussing synecdoches.

Definition: n. a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole.

You hear them in the news all the time. E.g., “We need boots on the ground (need the Army deployed)”; “America took home the gold! (means a select group of Athletes took home the gold”; “Get your butt over here (angry parent says to kid).”

Another example is that our very name is synecdoche. You identify as your name, but your name labels your bodily character. You may wondering why I am rambling but my question today is: Who do you represent? Who are you a smaller part of? Who is the bigger force that you take part in?

We, the Church, is known by many things. The Body of Christ, which we are hand (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). The Army of God, by which we stand proudly against the wiles of Satan (2 Timothy 2:4). I am Jacob, but this is now just a label for “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Life speeds up. The Psalms teach us, “to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Therefore-

Redeem the time (Ephesians 5:15-17). Known by a label, living as a someone who is truly alive. Know who you represent as an ambassador.

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:20