Donald Miller wrote: “Some people skip through life; some people are dragged through it. I sometimes wonder whether we are moving through time or time is moving through us.”

I woke up today realizing that I’m over half-way done with my program in school, and that in mere months I’ll be off to my internship. Where has the time gone? For that matter, it seemed like yesterday I was watching the sun set while sitting on the clay ground of the Navajo Nation. Time does more than “fly”…it shoots like an arrow, and you’re lucky if you can grab it’s wind as it zooms by. It makes me wonder how I’m on time for anything. I don’t think that it’s necessarily me whose running late, but rather the late that is doing all of the running.

David (the former shepherd turned king) wrote:

4 “Show me, O LORD , my life’s end

and the number of my days;

let me know how fleeting is my life.

5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;

the span of my years is as nothing before you.

Each man’s life is but a breath.

6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:

He bustles about, but only in vain;

he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

What is success to you? Working in any industry can be cut-throat (I know the music industry is). People step on others as rungs in a latter of (what they view is) success. I think Rich Mullins said it best when he commented: “I tend to think success is overrated, that it’s something everybody goes after until they get it, then nobody know what to do with it.”

I revisited the White Mountains in Arizona last weekend. I had lived in Show Low for 6 years before I journeyed to the Phoenix area for school. Driving through the mountains I passed snow which was on the side of the road, and awed to see that at night the stars still play. And in that moment something awoke in me again. I believe that what awoke was the realization of not only the fragility and shortness of life, but also of the quality. I remembered what was valuable, and what I believe success is…

Success for me is having a relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

Success for me is being loved, and having someone to love.

Success for me is getting lost in the night sky, the power of the ocean, and witnessing the strong gentleness of wind blowing through the trees.

Success for me is the experience of having compassion…whether it’s on the receiving or giving end.

Success for me is banging out love songs on a piano or singing at the top of my lungs while playing guitar.

Success for me is worshiping God, with my actions, words and thoughts.

Time tugs, and if you’re not careful it will sweep you off your feet. What is success to you? Let success be the quality of living, not the amount of getting, or spending.