The voice on the other end of the phone was a church leader named Joe in the congregation in East Texas that I served. Cancer had taken Joe's wife from him and I called to tell him that he and his family were in my prayers.
"Joe, I'm not sure what you mean," I answered.
"Well, Clint," Joe continued, "Before Pam died we always said we would get around to this and that sooner or later. It wasn't until she got sick that we realized that it was later than we thought. Don't waste time because it's later than you think."
What wisdom in the midst of grief that Joe shared with me. I look backward through time and see missed opportunities, wasted time, and a host of events that I didn't relish as I should with my wife and kiddos, because I forgot that it was later than I thought.
The beauty is that it is never too late to realize that while we've missed chances at living fully, we still have now. Time is unfair. We know everything about the past and can do nothing to change it. We know nothing about tomorrow, and we have so much we can choose to impact it.
So, when the tyranny of the urgent tries to squeeze out the truly important, remember it's later than you think.
I'm going to play a little catch with Connor because the day will come that it's too late. He'll need to be playing catch with his little ones, and changing my diapers.
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