Not Just Yet!

Come gather ’round people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’. ~Bob Dylan

So writes Bob Dylan nearly 3 1/2 decades ago. And yet, I can’t help but feel his words have always been prophetic and not simply for his generation only. In my own life I know it’s true – like the weather and the trees outside my window, the times they are a-changin’. Church, work, home, friends, family; it’s all changing to be sure. I’m uncertain what the change will bring – and it always brings about something new – but I’m less apprehensive about it than I used to be. I suppose this is a good thing, as it means I’m either getting older and wiser, or older and dumber. Either way I’m less ruffled by the change of the tide, so I figure that’s a good thing.

While listening to the song above I was particularly struck by the words, “If your time to you is worth savin’, then you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone…”, and decided that it was more than just a great Dylan song – it was God once again rapping at the door of my heart and saying, “WAKE UP!”

And I knew it, immediately I knew He was right. I’d become dormant, living a life of limited liabilities and hoping that the inevitable change wouldn’t come – or at least not just yet. I suppose that’s kind of the catch phrase for anyone hiding from God and from his own destiny – “Not just yet!” And yet, when you’re a child and innocence abounds, the “not just yet” has different connotations than it does for adults. Usually the “not just yet” is the battle cry of discovery, trumpeting that you’re doing all that is possible to make the most of the time that you have and sucking the marrow out of life. Those warm summer evenings catching fireflies and breathing in the warm, moist air of late July, hoping that bedtime would somehow come later. And when the inevitable comes and Mom yells out the door, “Time to come in!”, you instantly plead, “Not just yet Mom! Not just yet!” Sometimes you won out, sometimes she did. But it was always a dance and it was always about trying to get that last little drop of freedom and life out of the time left. Then you grow up and suddenly “not just yet” becomes the sad pleading of a heart weary of taking chances and risking all only to be hurt and dissappointed again. A life, as C.S. Lewis so aptly puts it, of “limited liabilities” that is carefully wrapped up with its own cares and watched over by its primary guardian – FEAR.

The time for constant compromises is over. I am determinded to do those things that keep life worth living rather than all the things that keep life going. Writing, blogging, singing, playing, surfing, traveling, dancing, driving, hiking, flying, and many other “ing’s”. My time is worth saving, and while I may have been sinking, I’m not dead yet! I will not live a life of limited liabilites, and while fear may still try to win out, I know that my life can be like swimming in the great Pacific and feeling the rush of the waves as they take my body and hurl it towards the shore. Even the times when I’m pulled under and driven into the sand are simply part of the deal, and ultimately, the most exhilirating part of it all. Without the risk where would the reward be? After all, being in the ocean – or wherever you find yourself happiest – no matter how bad you may have had it, no matter who or what may have broken your heart, and no matter what else awaits you tomorrow – you find yourself saying once again like a little child, “Not just yet! Not just yet…”