Fully Alive
Spring is in full bloom in the deep south and it just moves my soul. I love fresh green zoysia grass, azaleas in bloom, daylillies springing up, warm days and cool evenings. My routine this time of year is to come home from work, change into shorts and move out to our back patio to enjoy the evening with my wife and kids. We talk, catch up on the day, play fetch with the dogs and just experience the beauty of God's kingdom. Even the dogs feel "fully alive" these days. Our indoor dog can't wait for me to come home. He jumps me when I walk in and goes with me to change clothes. All the while, he is eagerly wagging his tail and on the ready for my break to the back door and "dog time". There, the black lab is also on ready. He sees me come in the house and sits at the back door waiting. As soon as I step out into the yard, they spring into action, tails wagging and tennis ball in mouth ready to go.

Fully alive. Do you ever feel it? Isn't it a precious time? It is so fleeting. We feel it for an hour or so on a Saturday afternoon after the chores are done, the yard looks good and the day is cooling off. In that time, we can almost feel God walking with us "in the garden in the cool of the day". Fully alive.

When do you feel most fully alive? Think back to your days as a kid - what are the memories of fully alive back then? For me, it was wiffle ball. I had about 10 boys that were my close friends and we fell in love with wiffle ball. We'd rotate "home fields" - my house one week, George's house the next and occasionally, Lakebottom park. We perfected the game. On Friday afternoons we'd cut the grass tight and water the lawn. Some of the crew would spend Friday night together and work on our uniforms, tape up our bats and tape up a few extra balls. On Saturday the other 1/2 would show up and we'd spend 3-4 hours playing very competitive baseball. This was 4th, 5th, 6th grade stuff and we loved it. We'd watch the Braves and Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench of the Big Red Machine or Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates and we'd learn their swings and copy them on wiffle ball field. We were fully alive.

Saturday while I was working in the yard I heard some boys walking down in my creek. I edged over to the fence and watched them as they passed by my house. These guys were about 10 years old and two of them didn't have shirts on and all three were barefooted. They had set out for an adventure, found this creek and explored it. They were a long way from home but that just added to the fun. I heard them talking, "next time we do this, we need to bring our air rifles". I saw their mom Sunday at church and she said they spent all afternoon recounting their adventure in the creek. Fully alive.

Find it. Pursue it. God came and liberated us that we may live life to the full. Find it. It is out there for you. He wants you to experience it and stay in it.

Fully alive.

Soar!