We’ll Build A Life.
I was looking over some old photographs today. Life moves so quickly, but at the same time, it’s easy to think back on every single day that has passed.
The photo above was taken about 747 days ago. I was standing on the observation deck of the Hoover Dam, being completely amazed by the great height. I was enamored of the progress of the bypass bridge project. A project I had been watching come together since around 2001.
Looking at this photograph reminded me of what life was like in that moment and what life was like every time I passed it as a young teenager. I had always looked at it and longed for the day I would be able to stand on it. I imagined the great height of it and dreamed of how terrifying it would be to walk that far above the dam I had been on so many times before.
At the time of this photo, I was 20. My friends seemed a lot older than me at the time. They were like 24 and 26 and 30 and whatnot.
I had just decided to stop writing scripts and had moved on to try and find a life like everyone else. I think I had a job in retail and I was about to begin a new semester in college, studying business management and retail. I was really involved with church, it was my whole world at the time. Everything revolved around church ministry.
I was really naive. I was really unfocused. I held on to a childish belief that something so much greater was to come. I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing but I knew that if I just kept on living, if I just kept on working at what I was doing, the pavements I chased would lead me somewhere eventually. Not just anywhere, but somewhere great!
The photo above was taken about 23 days ago. I was standing on the completed bypass bridge, looking down from such great heights.
I am 22. My friends seem a lot younger to me today. They are like 26 and 28 and 32 and whatnot.
I have just decided to start writing chapters and have moved on to try and find a life like nobody else. I have a job in professional writing and I am finished with college (for now). I am very involved with church, though it is no longer my whole world. A crucial part, yes, but I find ministry exists beyond walls. More than anything… I just want to be more like Christ.
I’d like to think I’m a little wiser but I know I’m still naive in many ways. My beliefs have probably transcended childish at this point, but the end result has been faith in the hope of today, tomorrow and the days to come. I know better things are to come.
Though rather than waiting in a castle tower for the big, strong “knight in shining armor” to come carry me away to a care-free life, I’m learning the skills to be a knight myself. I’m learning how to put on my armor and how to use the tools and resources I’ve been given. Will I live care-free? Probably not until the day I die but I’m happier now because I know where to cast my cares when I have them. I know I will be able to handle whatever comes my way. I know that I don’t walk alone.
Everything is different now and I can’t help but look back to that wide-eyed, naive 20-year-old and wonder if she would still want to carry on in life to be me or if she’d be completely disinterested. I wonder if she would think that I ruined her whole world. That I believed differently than her and I made her take some risks and try some things… I wonder if she would still want to wake up the next morning. I don’t know how she’d feel, but I can only hope it would excite her more for what was to come.
(Photo from the blog of Gienger Adventures)
I remember the feeling of standing on this bridge for the very first time. Looking down below and losing my breath for a moment as I realized how high up we really were. Little moments like this get taken for granted in our lives each day, but this bridge will always act as a great symbolism to me of what can come of vision, time and determination.
You may be looking at your life right now and feeling like the incomplete bridge. You may feel like you’re taking too long to be built and you may have experienced some complicating events in life that have slowed down the building process in some ways. You may feel like a pipe-dream, like a project that is too vast to finish. Like a bridge that is taking too long to be of any use…
But it was finished. It took about 9 years, but it was completed and now it offers immeasurable use and joy to thousands of people every single day. It cuts down travel time between Arizona and Nevada and offers a view of the Hoover Dam one could never see before. It holds records for things like being the first concrete-and-steel composite arch bridge built in the United States. It is also the second highest bridge in the nation and the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. It holds a lot of sentimental value for many people as a memorial for Mike O’Callaghan and Pat Tillman. It unites two states together… The list goes on and so will yours. If you let it.
In about 747 more days, I should like to think that the 24-year-old I will be would want to look back at me today and say “you may not have gone where she wanted to go, but I promise I’m a better person for it”
… man, I must be getting old.
Let the Revival* Begin.
*the revival of dreams, Love, hope, the Spirit, compassion, wisdom, friendship, family, new beginnings and strong finishes, knowledge, peace, a future, kindness, unending purpose, creativity, passion, excitement, perception, teamwork, value, innovation, life and everything that is good!
