Moments Weren't Meant to Last

The definition of "moment" is "a very brief period of time."
That's not exactly a very long time. They say life is full of moments, and they are right.
And at the same time they are 100% wrong. Is life full of moments? You betcha. That is...
in a literal way, life has lots of very brief periods of time. But life is not full of the moments
that we try so dearly to hold on to.

You know what I'm talking about. That moment you watch the girl you could spend forever with as she picks flowers. The moment you are at the very top of the Mount Everest of your faith. That moment you are laughing so hard with your friend you can't breathe. Those moments.
Those very brief periods of time. Life is not full of those. They are rare. Valuable. Precious.

Two days ago I stood in the airport saying goodbye to my dad, mom, and sister. We prayed. I hugged my dad and then mom. And then I looked at my 16 year old sister who was trying to smile away the tears streaming down her cheek.

Moment.

That was a moment. The rare kind. The precious kind. Maybe not the kind you like or expect. But the kind that mean the most. My Rachel and I are so close. Best friends. We were both pretty busy this summer, but we made the most of the time together. We had a lot of great times. Times we laughed our heads off and couldn't even remember why. But those weren't moments. We've been doing that for 16 years.

But as I stood in that airport and tried to be the tough older brother holding back the tears, a moment happened. All of summer. All of our lives were wrapped into that one moment. I was leaving for college in California, 1,966 miles away, and a guy that never cries was fighting like everything to hold back a flood of tears.

So what's the point?

Hold on to those moments? No. In fact, don't. Relish every second of the moment, but don't try to hold on. Because a moment is brief. Very brief. If you try to hold on you will be disappointed. But thank God for every second of that moment. Because brief as they may be...they will happen. And that moment is a glimpse into eternity.