ROSES AND TIME

roses and time

image courtesy of photobucket.com

“Well I’ll be”! … I thought to myself as I read the words, “Confirm Friend Request.” I was a little surprised to be honest. I would have never thought that some of those people would want anything to do with me. There are givers and takers in life, I don’t think too many of us balance that scale equally too often, me not often enough.

I’ve known some very good and kind people in my life, those adjectives usually describe the givers. I’m more inclined to be a taker… Takers don’t get the flowery words to describe their lives or personalities. The words to describe the takers are easier to say and a whole lot shorter and easier to spell.

Excitement and even some hint of danger mark the the lives of takers, kinda like a train wreck; even though we can’t quit watching, we know there is a good chance of injury when we’re standing too close. Free will is about choices, and more than a few givers have made the wrong ones and end up living with the scars of collateral damage from the lives of the locomotive takers.

I requested a friend a while back, knew her since fourth grade. We went to the same church, our dads did business together. We even live in the same city and neighborhood a couple hundred miles from where we grew up. No response… crickets chirping… She’s a smart girl, or lady now I guess. She knows people rarely change and I’m not gonna lie and tell the world I’m no longer a taker- not like I was, but God’s still working on me. People have no power to change themselves, God does.

Somewhere along the way I’ve learned not just from my life, but the lives of others as well, when the train wrecks it does as much or more damage to the engine car. I’ve also learned there is more risk in being the giver, but a giver with a pure heart and the right perspective has infinitely more power than the locomotive taker, the power and peace of God within.

Bright stars burn out faster, fast cars have a shorter life, and beauty fades, like a beautiful flower. We remember well the takers from our lives, they leave  lasting memories. Sometimes those memories cut like the thorn of a rose long after the blossom is gone. We can recall the bright red rose in all of it’s glory, we can even remember how we felt inside decades before.

God and time have a way of reshaping the takers. Sometimes those old takers can become eloquent givers. As humans we’re not like a flower or a rose, we get a little more time, another chance. A chance to spread beauty on the inside, not just the outside. A chance to give…

A choice to cherish and consider…

Roses and time…