“This is the most important thing you will do today.”
The thought came over me the moment I saw him over my laptop. I see him often, a sweet old man at a coffee shop. We have the same conversation nearly every time, he tells me about his children and then does his best to fumble through his smartphone to show me pictures of his great-grand-children.
This time he asked me what I was doing, “I’m writing a book,” I said. “Don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t do it. You can do it. If you fail, then you will do it again.”
And with that, he left. The exchange lasted longer than I thought it would. It cut into a significant portion of my two hours of childcare.
The self-improvement culture we are in screams in my ear: you’re going to miss you self-imposed deadline! And in all of the noise, I wonder what I have missed out on when I haven’t looked up.
Because I see the older man often. He scans the shop, looking for a familiar face, looking for someone who will look up from their work and meet his eye. There have been plenty of times where I have typed away instead.
It makes me wonder what other most important parts of my day I have missed, laughing at my child’s joke, cuddling into my husband at night or connecting with a stranger, because of busyness and distractedness.
Goals are good, work can be noble, but not at the cost of human connection. If ambition severs the tie binding us all, then we have missed out on what we are called to do—live.
The whisper that came over me that day, was accurate. It was the most important part of my day, only I thought it was only about him and factored myself out of the equation. Instead, I’m certain he imparted something more valuable to me than I to him.
God, give me the wisdom to lookup more, so I can live.
- The Most Important Thing You Do Every Day
