The message arrived in the middle of my drive home from work, soon after I changed the radio to 104.7 WTUE in Dayton — my choice for classic rock music and the joke of the day from my friend John (the B-Man) Beaulieu, the legendary DJ.
I was deep in thought about something I will not face for quite awhile, prompting the typical questions. How will this turn out? What if it doesn’t go as I hope? When I am tired at the end of the day, my mind can go in a million different directions.
Only five minutes earlier I was stewing over something I didn’t do over many years ago, bringing back the regret that has stayed with me ever since. What the heck was I thinking? Why didn't I at least try? If only life offered do-overs.
In the midst of my thoughts, the B-Man put on some Van Halen. I cranked up the volume, in part to drown my thoughts, but also because — let’s be real here — there is no other way to listen to their songs.
And right there in the middle of Bunnell Hill Road, on a stretch between Lebanon and Springboro, on a Friday afternoon, Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen gave me a Sunday morning sermon the same as if I were in church on Sunday morning.
Life is not lived looking in the rear-view mirror. Nor is it well-spent worrying about tomorrow.
Instead, it is enjoyed most by embracing this very moment. Right Now.
“Right now, hey/
It's your tomorrow/
Right now/
C'mon, it's everything/
Right now/
Catch a magic moment/
Do it right here and now/
It means everything.”
…
WHEN I WAS A KID, our family had a station wagon that had a back seat that looked backwards, allowing to us kids to always look back to where we had just been. As much fun as that was at the time, I tell people in court now that their war with one another is a lot like sitting in that back seat.
It puts all the focus on where they’ve already been. And we could spend days listening to who did what to whom and why there are so many hard feelings as a result.
But how much good does that do us right now? I then say that a few years later, when I learned how to drive a car (thankfully, we didn’t have the station wagon anymore), I couldn’t stay in the back seat looking backwards anymore. Instead, I had to get in the front seat, looking forward.
And that’s where they as divorcing parents need to be in raising their children — in the moment, focused on what is in front of them, devoting their best to the most important people in the world to them. Right now.
This same concept comes to mind every time I see Ryan Day call a timeout during an Ohio State football game. The team huddles around him so they can hear what he has to say. And you can bet he doesn’t spend that time talking about the game they will play next week or next month. No no. They’re talking about the situation right then and there. Right now.
This is THE message that could be repeated every Sunday morning. By forgiving our past and securing our future, even in death, Jesus said, in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
…
BEFORE TONY EVANS PLAYED baseball at the University of Michigan and in the Cincinnati Reds’ farm system, I was his teammate at Franklin H.S. He would go 7-for-8 in a doubleheader and, between games, stand well behind third base and throw darts to first to show scouts how strong his arm was. He was a phenomenal talent.
Tony passed away Monday after suffering a heart attack, which makes me sad. He was too young, and he will be missed by so many.
When I heard the news, I was reminded yet again to quit worrying and instead look for the beauty in the simplest of things – at work, with friends, and the people you love, in a conversation or an activity or just by watching the sunset.
Or by listening to the words of a song.
Right Now.
“Capture the magic moment.”