The View

Well, for the past week it seems I have unintentionally climbed up on the rooftop of my life and have been looking from a distance at what's below. Although I just kind of found myself there this time, I am a big fan of purposefully taking a step back sometimes and getting good perspective.  We get so drawn into the detail of our everyday life that we miss a lot of things, or a lot of things become bigger than they really should be.

This introspective, reflective time has been twofold. It started last week when I had some spare time and went back through some blogs from earlier this year. Though I knew it, something about seeing life at the beginning of the year, just nine months ago, made me remember we've only been here (in Houston) three months. That might seem ridiculously obvious, and yes I can count, but in so many ways it feels like we've already been here so long.  Not in a bad way, in fact mostly in good ways. But we need that little reminder so often. Why? Because there's so much work to be done. We want it all done in a day. To see the entire city come to know Jesus (well that's a little dramatic but you get the picture). We're so passionate about our mission that we want it all to happen now. With that can come impatience and unrealistic expectations for yourself. And sometimes you just need to be reminded that it's not going to happen overnight. That's it's only been three months. One. day. at. a. time.  Being faithful to what God has called us to do.  And to think that things we're working through and believing for today was but a concept of a thought of something that could be nine months ago. Wow.

Ah, but time is a funny thing.  Our small little grasp on time. Because the twofold part of my bird's eye view of my life was the total opposite. The realization that I am about to have a seven year old.  As I was putting together the slideshow that you will see on here tomorrow of seven years' worth of Addison James Pate, it felt like years were like moments. Like that time was just sucked up in some kind of vacuum. Let me tell you we sat in front of that screen to see of all of those precious moments and memories and we totally fell apart like blubbering idiots got a little emotional. And we needed that little reminder, too.  To enjoy the moments while we can because they fly away.  And you don't get them back.

So there is the little picture into my strange time warp.  I've been quite emotional about it all, really.  Thank you for humoring me and reading along.  I guess you're somewhat of a captive audience, but hey- if you read this whole thing that was your choice, now wasn't it... But like I said in the beginning of the post, I really needed to detach myself from the overwhelmingness of the day to day and take that objective glance from above.  Because from this view I see a life that is blessed more than anything I could have ever asked for in every possible area.  Some days you need to see that, you know?  Peace out from the Pate house.