Last week, I was driving past a business where a friend of mine used to work. I would pass it on my way to appointments a couple of times each week, and every time I did, his vehicle was parked in the exact same spot.
That was “his” spot.
When I drove by last week, another vehicle was parked in the spot where he used to park.
It was just a parking space.
A parking space where he always parked.
Now someone else parks there.
I believe that simple parking space represents how we often think about the places we occupy in life:
“This is my space.”
“I have always been here.”
“No one else can take my place.”
Our parking spaces in life can be our jobs.
“No one else can do what I do.”
“They wouldn’t know what to do without me.”
Our parking spaces in life can be our friendships.
“They would fall apart without me.”
“I am the one who holds these friendships together.”
Our parking spaces in life can be the businesses we visit regularly.
“I spend a lot of money here.”
“They would miss me if I stopped coming in.”
Our parking spaces in life can even be—and this is a hard one—our families.
“My family has to have me.”
“They wouldn’t know what to do without me.”
Driving by and seeing someone else’s car in my friend’s old parking space made me realize that, eventually, another car will occupy each of the spaces we currently call ours.
Another employee will step into your position.
Other friends—or new friends—will step up.
Other customers will fill your place in line.
Other people will stand in the gaps and help your family through.
That doesn’t mean we don’t matter or that we won’t be missed. It simply means life continues moving, and none of the spaces we occupy belong to us forever.
The challenge for each of us is to remember that the parking spaces of life are temporary. They are ours for a season—whether that season ends because our lives change or because someone else’s life does.
No matter what those spaces are, one day they will be occupied by someone else. That is the difficult reality of what we call the cycle of life.
The parking space we once called ours will one day become the parking space someone else calls theirs.
That space serves us today, and one day it will serve another.
Be grateful for every space you have been given in life.
Occupy it well.
Appreciate it while it is yours.
Because one day, you will no longer park there.