I am a Daydreamer

I am a Daydreamer

I am a daydreamer.  I think I’ve always been sort of a daydreamer.  In fact, I cannot recall a time when I was not a daydreamer.  Even in grade school I found it easy to get lost in my thoughts.  A single glance out the window would take me miles and years away.  So, it was no surprise to me when I found myself daydreaming in church today.  Daydreaming in church?  That’s a bad thing, right?  Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t.  You can be the judge.

I don’t know why but for some reason a question came to my mind.  “What are the three most important words a person can speak?” I asked myself.

The answer to that question was obvious.  At least it was to me.  What three words could possibly carry more meaning than to say I love you?  “Yes, I love you!”  Then some familiar scriptures passed through my mind.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  “Yes, that’s true,” I thought to myself, and then another verse came to my mind.  “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15); and then another, and this one was a little longer, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:36 - 39).  I was on a roll.  Just like that I came up with three scripture verses from the New Testament that dealt with the Savior and love.  Then a fourth verse popped into my mind.  “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Now, I don’t know why, but after having gone through this little mental exercise while I should have been paying attention to what was happening at church, a second question came to my mind.  “What,” I asked myself, “are the next three most important words a person can speak?”

The first thought that came to my mind was to say I am sorry.  But that didn’t quite sit right with me.  We can express sorrow for any number of reasons.  It doesn’t have to be as a result of having wronged somebody.  Then it hit me.  “Please forgive me” have to be the next three most important words that a person can speak.  After all, the receipt of forgiveness is a true expression of love.  “Yes!  That’s it!  Please forgive me must be the next three most important words a person can speak.”  Those are healing words.

My mind continued to wander, as it often does, and I asked myself how many times somebody had asked me for forgiveness for an offense made toward me.  I couldn’t think of many.  In fact, I could only think of a handful of times.  And then my mind spoke to me again.  “Yes, but how many times have you, Greg, asked forgiveness from those people you have offended?”

And there I sat in church trapped by my own thoughts, my own daydream.  It occurred to me that I’ve said that I’m sorry for something that I’ve done, for an offense given, but I have seldom asked for forgiveness.  And the sad thing is that I have a hunch that I don’t even know half the people that I have offended, which merits seeking forgiveness in and of itself.  Now, I must know.

Sometimes when your mind is left to wander it will come back to indict you.  Mine did.  Please forgive me.

I am a daydreamer.  I think I’ve always been sort of a daydreamer.  I must either stop daydreaming or I must go to work on righting the wrongs I’ve done.  I think I know which it is I must do.