You know the way I want to die?

At an all-you-can-eat watermelon buffet.   Seedless, of course.

Sit me close to the line so I can go back, time and again, for juicy chunks of this marvelous red delicacy.   Chopped up in cubes, or rolled into balls. Giant slabs ready for my quivering fork to dig into.   That crunchy first bite, followed by sweet liquid—what’s this?  A food you can both eat and drink? I’m in paradise!  Load me up with another few pounds of the magical fleshy fruit, till I’m bursting with joy!

Poor choice of words.  But you get the idea.   I like watermelon.  It’s probably my favorite part of the summer.  In fact, as I pull closer to September I begin to feel wistful.  Did I make the most of my summer?

Hmm.  I didn’t swim in the lake.   I haven’t eaten one ear of corn.   No running through the sprinklers.  No long family vacations in the car.   I never even made it to a baseball game.

And watermelon?  Twice.    I brought home watermelon only twice all summer.  It was delicious, of course, but what happened to “the buffet”? Here’s my favorite food in the world, that only comes in season during one brief span all year, and I barely ate any.   It was hardly a priority.

With all the other things going on in my life, would you believe I just plain forgot?  I forgot to make time to enjoy more watermelon.   The whole watermelon experience, as precious as it is to me, took back seat to other things, like securing mortgage loans, and moving furniture and getting work done at the office.

And now?   Well, I still have time.  But not a ton.   Watermelon season doesn’t stay around for ever.

Hey–isn’t it good to know that God season never ends?  Well, yes, it’s true.  We can eat from the “God Buffet”, free of charge, any time we want.

But we don’t!  

The same thing happens–we forget.  We get distracted.  We don’t go to God because we’re busy with other things.   Connecting with God is powerful, life changing, affirming, directing, confirming, protecting, on and on I could go.  It’s truly paradise! Having a strong faith connection with God really DOES make an amazing difference…but we can let whole seasons pass without reaching out for God.

Silly, isn’t it?

I am guilty of taking both my favorite fruit and my God for granted.  And I’m going to remedy that right now.

Okay.  I’ve got watermelon on my shopping list, and I’ve got God-time on my schedule.  And you know what?

That’s the way I want to live.

Have a great week,

Mitch

(See you in 2 weeks!)