Running Late

(or 1 More UPS Story "for the Road")

I drove one of those ‘Big Brown (UPS) Bessies’ for 20 years; (and were I given the opportunity for a redo, I expect I might literally ‘go a different route.’) But sadly, there are no redo’s. It is what it is. (Or it was what it was).

Considering I averaged just under a hundred miles a day, 150 delivery stops, and 30 pickup stops, over the course of those two decades, is it any wonder I still dream about UPS? (Well, I do). About once a month. And over the years the dreams have come in multiples of dozens. 

At any rate, the dreams are always the same, and never differ one iota. 

I have been assigned an unfamiliar route that day, and as the sun sets on the horizon, and I’m a few minutes from having to set a course for the UPS center, I notice I still have eight or ten packages on the shelf. And as I look at the parcels, I realize that I don’t recognize any of the street names. I’m hopelessly lost. Well, to be fair, I know where I am, but I have no idea where those to whom the packages are addressed reside.

I find myself ‘caught between a rock and a hard place.’ While I simply must prepare to head back in, United Parcel doesn’t tolerate undelivered packages. 

And thus, with this unhappy development, the dream ends.
As I have implied in the past, I fancy myself not only a dreamer of dreams, but a pretty fair interpreter of the same. And this dream has been no exception.

For you see, the dream has little or nothing to do with United Parcel Service. Granted, the symbolism borrows from my previous role with that company. But this is where the similarities end. 

The truck and route represent my destiny, and my pursuit of the proverbial highways and byways which God has set before me. 

The packages I have delivered throughout the work day are all about decisions I have made, and circumstances I have encountered. 

The sunset on the horizon represents a life which is quickly coming to a conclusion. 

The remaining parcels which bear unknown addresses speak to my anxiety about completing the destiny God has designed for me, and making good choices and exercising rich impact in the time I have left.

A notable figure of our time uttered a few lines which have remained with me throughout the years.

I don't know if mama was right
or if it's Lieutenant Dan.

I don't know if
we each have a destiny,
or if we're all just floating around
accidental-like on a breeze.

But I think maybe it's both.
Maybe both is happening
at the same time.

(But I miss you, Jenny.
If there's anything you need,
I won't be far away).

I didn’t say he was a real person, but his words have great import, nonetheless. And I guess I lean much more towards Forrest’ first hypothesis, than his second. While sometimes it seems so many of our trials, trouble and, yes, our triumphs come ‘accidental-like,’ you will never convince me that our destinies aren’t stamped into stone, and were written into the fabric of our lives,

…before He made the worlds.

And I think we should pursue those destinies with all our hearts; in whatever time God has allotted us to pursue them. I can think of no better way to conclude this blog than to allude to a different kind of dream, than the one at the beginning of this story, and one which I previously ‘set to paper.’

If I were to ask you to name the richest piece of ground on earth, you might say the oil wells of Saudi Arabia, or the rain forests of South America, or the gold mines of South Africa.

And if you were to respond this way, 

…you would be wrong.

For the richest piece of ground on earth is

… your local cemetery.

For you see, lying dormant in the bosoms of hundreds of people there are unfinished dreams. Dreams which might have changed the world. And those dreams will languish there for a million years.

I want to go to my grave empty, absolutely devoid of dreams; having fulfilled those things which God has set within my heart to do. 

We recently lost a wonderful young lady named Joey Feek to cancer; half of a husband-wife Gospel singing duo. As Joey was approaching death, her entire community rallied in the town square to pray for her and to celebrate her life. Bill and Gloria Gaither were there, and the following words, taken from Gloria’s prayer that evening have eternal significance for us all.

“We only have a moment here. Help us to recognize the eternal in all that we do.”

 By William McDonald, PhD. From (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 43. Copyright pending

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