A lot of times I think that the biggest moments in life happen when you win that big game, or have the big showdown with a person, or write that one "killer app" that gets you noticed or sells a million a copies.
Then I remember about this time in high school when there was an open work day at our church. We were finally adding on a gymnasium/office/youth room and everybody was pitching in to help get things finalized. A lot of folks inside the structure of the building, going up on the rafters to hand a few features, or going out to the store making a few purchases, you know the "cool" things to do for a kid. I wound up being just outside the building with a guy, digging a trench against a small hill that we'd use for drainage when it rains. It was pretty hard work, but we had the best time in the world simply digging, laughing, and even talking about some of the bigger things in life, all in a trench.
It was that day I realized a lot of the biggest moments in life happen in the "smallest" situations:
- Those random, unplanned trips with your friends to nowhere special where you wind up talking all night.
- Those bus trips to competitions where you played cards and talked the whole time while playing cards.
- A late night coffee run with somebody simply because you couldn't sleep anyway.
- Sitting on your deck, listening to the rain, watching the sunset, and reading books with your children.
- Having somebody come by for dinner at the last minute because they had a really rough day.
- Sitting in a card shop late at night, and hearing the life story of the guy who works there.
We often forget these things, or miss the significance of simply "doing life" with somebody, where the most significant things wind up happening.