Life Is Short. Let's Quit Messing Around.

After hearing that a 3 year old little girl had left this life after a battle with cancer, I crawled into bed with my 3 year old boy and wept.  This week a family lost their grandfather that lived many years in the town where my parents met.  That connection to Healdton, OK flooded my mind with all kinds of memories of days gone by with my own grandparents.  This morning I got a phone call saying one of the sweetest girls I've ever known lost her dear husband to a car accident on the way to work this morning.  They are younger than us and have 5 beautiful children together.  I have cried all day, off and on, for them.  And none of these events had anything to do with politics, a virus, or social injustice.  

I know that what is happening in the world is scary and significant, but even in the face of all these factors, life is terribly short.  Everyday more things get shifted around and more foreboding for the future, but life is still marching on.  That 3 year old boy of mine that I cuddled the other morning has now graduated from a tricycle to a bicycle.  Life is short.  Why are we messing around with so much of this foolish debate when we have people to love and lives to be living?  I may not get to go on a single vacation this year (and trust me when I say we are missing it!) and some of my favorite events may be cancelled, but there is work to be done in the hearts of my children and growth to be had in my relationships.  Sin is still destroying lives and souls still need nourishment, no matter the cause of their pain.  We have to quit being so distracted and realize there is nothing new under the sun.  It may feel like it, but in reality God's seen all this many times before and ultimately told us everything we need to know, if only we'll listen..

I had only met our friend's husband a time or two, but his legacy of being a kind and generous  Christian man is well-known.  The tragedy of such a loss is only out shined by the comfort of his ife security in the Lord.  His beautiful children have been given a wonderful example to strive for.  

Are we doing that for the children and young around us?  With our razor sharp responses and condemning eyes, are we giving them Godly character to imitate?  When we thought this little shutdown and bizarre living was temporary, most of us learned to make the best of it.  Now that things aren't exactly wrapping up in a bow, have you started to get really cranky? I have to work on myself, to be honest.  But, as I am reminded today, life is beautiful and incredibly short.

While our heads are glued to the drama in the screens around us, life is still happening.  Did you notice?  

I'm praying that I will soak in all of the movements of the souls in my home.  I'm praying that we will go on that adventure today because no one knows if it will be possible tomorrow.  I'm praying that whatever is needed to make our souls ready for life after death, that we do it now.  

If you are interested in helping my friend and her precious children, there is a GoFundMe account set up in their honor.