It was a warm April day. The birds were chirping. The sun was shining. You might say it was perfect. I pulled up to the church, ready to volunteer. I met the college leader in the parking lot. As we walked into the building it happened. I saw her. I remember it clearly. She was beautiful. She was walking our way. The college pastor introduced us. I said hello and she told me her name and then went on her way. I didn’t know that was a moment that would forever change my life, but it was April Fools day. I thought I hadn’t made an impression. In a month and a half it will have been 22 years since that day. She is reading to our son right now. It was the best April Fools day ever.

I love people. I love talking to people. Finding out about them. I love starting conversations that matter…conversations that let people know that they matter.

I have found that some of the best conversations that I have had are because I was trying to show an act of kindness to the other person. If someone can sense that you care, they are much more willing to open up into conversation. They will definitely be glad that you talked to them.

         I went through the line of a restaurant at lunch a couple of days ago. The lady running the register looked like she had had a rough day. You know the look I am referring to. She had had it rough and needed a break.

         As I got to the counter, she covered her mouth and let out a big yawn. I could tell that this would be a good opportunity to brighten her day. As she looked back at me, I smiled from ear to ear and said, “It is only noon. You must have started early and haven’t caught a break.” She smiled back at me. Her spirit lifted just a bit.

         What I said was not spectacular, but it was purposeful. I validated that she was a hard worker and that she had been doing her job. Someone had noticed. Someone cared. By smiling at her and showing her sincerity, I filled a need that she had.

So, the question is: When you talk to people, what do they need? It may be a laugh. It may be encouragement. They may just need someone else to acknowledge that they are there and important enough to speak to. People all around us need our contact. This has to become second nature. I don’t walk around all the time looking at different people wondering, what do they need? That would make me weird. I do care about people. I do want the best for people. Because of that, I try my best to be a good conversationalist. If I fill a need they have, good.

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; 
   don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; 
   he’s the one who will keep you on track. – Proverbs 3:5-6 (The Message)

I love being a dad. Playing with my boy is one of the coolest things ever. I get to see life through the his eyes. I get to marvel at things just like he does. That included freaking out a little bit when he started climbing the furniture. We knew it was coming, but it still took us by surprise when he would yell across the house for help because he had climbed up on his changing table and couldn’t get down. That seems like forever ago.

Marixa sent me a picture once while I was at work. She came into our bedroom and this boy was scaling the front of our dresser like an expert climber scales a cliff. He must have been two years old. He decided that he wanted the remote control for the TV and nothing was going to deter him from getting it. The remotes were over 5 feet off the ground. I remember it made me laugh.

Along with climbing he started playing a new game: jump and let daddy catch me. He would climb up on a steamer trunk that we had in our living room, make sure I am in position, and the fling himself off of it as best he could. (At that point He hadn’t quite figured out how to jump yet, but throwing himself he had gotten quite good at.)

He did this repeatedly. Climb up, smile, fling himself into my arms, laugh and do it all over again. It was often a highlight of my day because I knew that my son trusted me to catch him. He still knows to this day that his daddy won’t let him fall.

I remember a cruise we went on when he was one. We found ourselves on a beach in Progresso on the Yucatan peninsula in southern Mexico. It was his first trip to the beach. He loved it. He played in the water, ate some sand (gross, but true), and hung out in the water with me and Marixa and our friends who we were traveling with.

I was playing with him in the ocean and began to toss him up into the air. He squealed with delight. The higher I tossed him the harder he laughed. I tossed him up until my shoulders got too tired. He absolutely loved it. Just like later when he would jump off the table, he knew that his daddy would catch him and everything was ok.

The part my boy didn’t know is that his daddy helped control the circumstances. I wouldn’t let him jump to me from just anything because I wanted to ensure that I could catch him. When I tossed him up in the air I made sure not to toss him higher than I could have compensated for on the ground. While he trusts me, I am constantly working to keep and enlarge that trust. I don’t want to let him fall or let him down. It is just not an option.

In the same way, we have a Heavenly Father who is in control of all of the circumstances. The bible tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love God. It doesn’t say that all things are going to be easy, but it does say it works for our good. We have a Father that we can trust. When we trust him and jump to him and he will catch us. He won’t let us fall.

So, why do we have such a hard time trusting him with our lives? Why do we fight so hard to stay in control? I don’t have an answer to those questions, but I do know this: If My boy can trust me to catch him, I can trust God to catch me. He loves me and he wants the best for me. No, jumping is not easy, but trusting is a choice. I don’t have to understand it. If I know God wants me to jump, I choose to trust. I know He will catch me.

Yesterday I had to do something that I don’t normally do. I had to phone a friend for help. I needed him to take care of something for me. Something that wasn’t his to do. I made the call. He responded. That’s what friends do.

I am so blessed to have friends in my life like this. People that you can call at a moments notice who will help. People who will stand in the gap for you. People who will help you just because you are friends. People who are just as close as family even though you are not related.

So, to those of you who are in this category, thank you so much for the honor of being your friend. You are there for me and I will be there for you. I appreciate you more than I know how to express. I love you more than I know how to say. God blessed me when he brought you into my life.

Thank you for being my friend.

I have met more than one person who has lost hope. I penned this in an attempt to empathize. Lord help us long before we ever feel this way.

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.

Verse 1

I’m going 90 miles an hour, the way these days go by leaves you spinning in circles sick from the ride. The faster that I go, the more important things I miss. This can’t go on forever, I can’t keep up like this.

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.

Verse 2

When you look you see a stranger…my face is just a shell. No one else has noticed, but you know me too well. The light that shone inside me has dwindled to a spark. Who knows how long it will be before it all goes dark?

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.

Bridge

Can you save me from this ride? Take this fear from me? Can you bring me anything to curb the insanity?

Chorus

There has to be more to this life more than just the struggle to survive. There has to be more from the days I have seen. There has to be more to me.