Two guys and an afternoon

Recently I set some time aside to visit with an old friend. This man I visited with, he has seen some very rough patches of road this year. His health has given him a run for his money and put himself and loved ones on high alert. While he’d be the first one to remind me that I wasn’t lucky enough to get rid of him yet, we stared at finality together and we talked about it.

Personally, coming from a long line of pastors, I guess I grew up being familiar with the visiting idea, one on one, man to man, and discussions of the very fundamentals of life. We were talking about the largeness found inside the simplest little joys in life. While we also courageously endeavored to stare directly into the vastness of spirituality, and that which is bigger than life itself. We shared with one another the smallness found inside of the details that, when taken away, leave a gaping hole in our lives, that it often times takes to get a simple message through a thick skull, or learned behaviour.

We shared in how it used to be, how it should be, and how it won’t likely be again. We gushed over our kids, and how was it that such fine folks could have ever come from someone like us. We laughed at our frailties and shortcomings, and humbly set aside our contributions as they stack up so short compared to the Almighty and all that He oversees. We recognized the sparkle of life renewed in each other’s eyes, for a million very different reasons, all while being very aware of all the words that needn’t be spoken.

The visit lasted just for part of an afternoon. But I can speak for me, and I say that 2016 would not be as fulfilling as it could be without that time we set aside to share. Two men sitting in a room, with no distractions other than the ones our bodies carried into the room. No tv, radio, phones, or computers. Just a rocking chair and a couch, the only props we needed. There we sat, and the minutes were filled with experience, knowledge, wisdom, life lessons, and reflection. In the break-neck pace we work so hard to maintain or not get run over by, it’s afternoons like the one I described, that make me wonder why we care to be so busy just being busy. Sometimes the pace needs to slow enough so that there can be just two guys and an afternoon.