department of redundancy department

"today never happened before." -jonathon foreman [switchfoot]

when i walked into his office, from wall to wall to wall to wall was books. and my professor and mentor was sitting at his desk writing another. i had 2 months before winter break when i would transfer to the University of Georgia and begin the next chapter of my life. i walked in as usual and sat. as he saved his latest ideas, he turned and asked, "how is your day, today?" that is how he would begin most conversations. from the department of redundancy department. and until recently, i don't think i ever really grasped his reasoning in articulating his question structure that way.

--- rob bell, in his "everything is spiritual" tour, spoke about how God called for moses to come up on top of the mountain and be there. that seems silly to us, with the idea that of course, if moses went there, then he would certainly be there. but rob bell points out the reasoning in articulating a command like that. because often times we're so concerned with what else is going on and what else we have to do, that we miss the here and now. the story tells of the pretty intense hike moses had to endure to get to the top of the mountain, and that he, being human, would probably go ahead and begin to think, plan and fret of his journey down the mountain as soon as he arrived. and in doing so, "moses would never really be on top of the mountain." and in effect, miss the point. miss the mark. and miss God.

brilliant.

so as i sat there, i simply asked my mentor, "how?" how could you manage to read that many books? how could you find time to write more of them? how could you balance that with your family time? with your free time? and on top of that, squeeze in time to teach college classes? oh yeah, and make time to meet with students like myself for hours on end weekly?

and the man who speaks seven languages laughed and shook his head and said these words (in english),

"We all have the same 24 hours. How do you use yours?"

wow.

( and that's when i knew that it would be very wise to visit this man as much as i could while i had the chance)

so, how is your day, today? - that's not a mistake. and today's not a mistake. this day was made, for today. there has never been one like it. there will never be another like it. what are you going to do with it? we can't be so focused on what happened yesterday or what's going to happen tomorrow that we never really live today.

i want to wake up and be awake.

i want to live and be alive.

today has never happened before. how will you spend it?

here and now,
-pc