Walking moment by moment

While the fellas were playing paintball on Saturday, I was watching, taking photos, and thinking a lot. To be completely honest, it was a hard thing to watch my good friends go through – nor was it the most exciting tournament, on our end. If we were playing golf. . . we would have won by 4 points. Though it was a hard day to get through - near the end, there was a point of triumph. Triumph came in the form of a blowout win. In paintball, maxing another team is when all 5 of your players eliminate the other 5 players on the field of play. We had gone the entire day winless, but this was the match when we vowed to never let up, never let down, never quit.

Coming out of the gate, 3 eliminations were credited to our team of fearless gunners. While I was taking photos of this particular match, I was unaware that these events had happened so quickly. I was caught up in the moment of taking the perfect photos, and they guys were blasting their way to victory, on opponent at a time. Within the next minute and a half, our team had blown the door open on the opponents by eliminating their remaining two teammates.

The game of paintball consists of a series of point values: points for eliminating the opponents players, points for retrieving a flag in the middle of the field of play, and points for placing that flag on the opponents’ bunker/starting area. When all five eliminations had happened, that’s when I realized what was going on. Our guys had done it, when everyone else thought that they couldn’t pull it off! I was shocked, amazed, proud, and so happy for our team (I think I said “Wow!” about 20 times)!

Thinking back on this momentous moment, from our tournament yesterday, I was also struck with another though. This type of victory, the cause for celebration type of moment, doesn’t happen very often in our lives as men and women; but when it does, there is all the more cause for celebration. I think it’s the little victories in life, when it seems like the whole world and everything/everyone in it is against you. Life can be a cruel teacher, that’s for sure! The thing that we should do as believers is to celebrate the small things in our lives . . . the ones that mean so much to us – enjoying each moment that we are given – because no one ever knows how many of these moments that we are given.

In the Philippians 4:4 it says “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say Rejoice.” Think about it with me, what in our lives is a cause for this type of celebration? And do we really take the time to “savor the moment” like it is talking about in Philippians? God has created each day, as a new moment to rejoice and delight in the things that He has created for us to walk in.

David, a man after God’s own heart, wrote in Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Not that we should delight in the Lord for the desires of our heart, but that when we do delight ourselves in God’s presence we are content with all that God is and not worrying about what He gives us. It’s not about the material gain that comes from this type of delight, but God will provide everything you need according to his rich mercies. I think this is a call for us to slow down, in this crazy technological world we live in, and just enjoy each moment that we are given. To live without worry, without regret, without any reservations of what could or will happen, and just . . . live!!! Really and truly live!!!

I think that these passages speak to my heart, if not more so than the hearts and lives of everyone around me.

So what would it take for you to slow down and enjoy the moments that God has made specifically for you today?