It's good to be
home. As I write this I am sitting on my
favorite couch at Fair Trade coffee shop, my old hangout in downtown Phoenix,
sipping a delicious dark roast and listening to the least pretentious coffee
shop music in town. As I was flying into
Phoenix the other night, staring out my 737 window, I suddenly got excited to
be home and tried to figure out which side of the city we were entering. I attempted without success to get my
bearings until we were practically landing.
I walked onto the jet bridge and was surprised by the wave of heat that
blasted me despite the fact that it was 11 pm.
I took the brand new "sky train" to the light rail system and
soaked in the familiar sights. I started
narrating in my head all the places I passed and my relationship to them as if
I were a tour guide. Then, as I got off
my stop in front of Gateway Community College and started a internal monologue
about its campus I remembered that I had once taken a Spanish class there. I had spent four hours a week sitting in a
cold classroom listening to an old white lady teach Spanish for an entire
semester and I had completely forgotten the entire thing. I had just been part of a conversation a
couple days previous about my Spanish speaking skills and the different places
I had learned them and the thought of that class never even entered my mind. An entire semester forgotten.
Back in AZ after a year
I know I have a bad
memory but I never thought I would forget such vital aspects of my life in
Phoenix after only a year away. Time and
time again though, the last couple days in Phoenix, I have found myself forgetting
major street names, friend's houses, even the way to my favorite hiking
locations. It makes me think about the
book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.
Solomon declares that he has pretty much tried everything in life but
all is vanity. While it seems obvious to
me that material possessions are transient - moths and rust decay, housing
markets collapse, gold tarnishes, and eventually you have to sell your
motorcycle and your Wrangler - I guess it sometimes seems less obvious that
experiences fade just as quickly. That
white water rafting trip down the Snake river, Philosophy 211, your first bike
ride, all your memories will eventually fade into the past leaving you with
just a slight change of character or world view. So when everything has come and subsequently
gone - possessions, experiences, education, even relationships - what are you
left with? I guess the only constant in
life, the only thing that survives the grave, is your relationship with Jesus
and your work for the Kingdom of Heaven.
More and more I want the focus of everything I do, everything I own, and
every relationship I have to be on the eternal instead of the transient.
