What is it You Plan to do With Your One Wild and Precious Life?
“I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
”
2021. The new year came in like a gust of wind from the North to meet barren trees and still rivers, and all I can hear in the swooshing of dust is the whisper of “now.”
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been nursing a restlessness that usually finds me at the edge of a very big life change, or a small inner revolution. The couch doesn’t feel comfortable anymore. The daily onslaught of news is uninteresting. The dwindling daylight casting shadows on my coffee table feels like an animal begging to be chased after. All I want is to be out somewhere climbing a tree, roasting at a bonfire, driving with purpose, making a difference.
This is no revelation in and of itself, but life is so, so, short. And this awareness feels arresting, and pertinent now — in life during a pandemic. Lately, anytime I’ve dreamt up a plan or imagined a place I want to go, I feel coiled tight and ready to spring.
I know this isn’t by any means a unique feeling, but there is a passion and an urgency about life I miss in so many people. Most of the time, big plans and big dreams get relegated into a big pile of do-laters and do-overs. We live our lives boringly, safely, and arrogantly like we can count on life as we know it tomorrow. Today, my pastor said, “We live too busy looking at the ground and forgetting that God is calling us to look at the stars. God didn’t put us on Earth to just exist; he put us on Earth to bring heaven to Earth.”
This year I pray you and me; we all get the courage to step out and do something great. Because we have been made for great. And no matter what those things are...whether those dreams are visiting all national parks, finally getting to publish a book, buying a house, forgiving your father, hiking Patagonia, or getting that big break…may we rest in the confidence that “surely goodness, love and mercy will follow you and me all the days of our lives.” - Psalm 23:6.
As for me, I have a feeling this year when anyone tells me “Hey, let’s do that thing together." I’m going to say, “Let’s get going.”
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”