Last week, I dropped my truck off for my mechanic to fix.  The check engine light was on and the engine was running rough.  The next day, he called.  He needed to run an errand and offered to bring my truck to me if I could drop take him back.  As he was getting out of the vehicle, I asked him how much I owed him.  He said “nothing,” that it was on him and that he might have even caused the problem when he had worked on my truck the week prior.

On the way home, I teared up a little.  No, this was not wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I let the moment sink in.  He could have charged me.  He did do work on my vehicle.  And instead, he decided to fix the problem and reset the computer without charge.  And he even made a house call!

Within moments, my mind quickly rationalized that it was, in fact, the right thing for him to do.  That he shouldn’t have charged me.  And…I almost moved on.  Except, I was really enjoying that moment of being truly grateful for having an honest mechanic.  I was really enjoying the moment of not being charged.  I was enjoying the moment of appreciating this favor.

Today, a week later, this actually started to dawn on me.  I move on too quickly.  Something great happens, and it’s time to move on.  There’s no time to stay in the moment.  To appreciate.  To enjoy.  To experience.  To…soak…it…in.  It’s not that we don’t want to enjoy this things, it’s just that we are not always intentional about it.

I remember the first time I became painfully aware of this feeling in my life.  I had just graduated college and my mom got me a new TV and a Bose surround sound home theater system.  Movie nights at my apartment were EPIC!  And I remembered having to move on.  Ever since then, I have had one thing that keeps showing up on my Christmas list?  Time.  More time to enjoy what I had.

Then, insert career, insert wife, insert kids, insert my own business.  Remove time.

But, we have to be intentional about soaking in the moments.  Those moments are pieces of our lives.  They are feelings we get to collect.  They are memories we take time to store.  They are the things we are going to hold on to most dearly when our kids are grown up and moved out.

If we do not learn to enjoy something before moving on to the next moment, how can we ever possibly hope to enjoy something achieved in the next moment or the moment after that!?  We will just keep moving through moments, and if we never stop and soak it in…life will race by because we were too busy moving on to the next thing.

This year, Christmas comes early.  Time is not for life to steal.  Time is mine to master.  I need to bend it to serve my purposes and take back my time.