What if you knew you had but one year left to live, what would you be doing today ... and tomorrow ... and the next day ...? My emotions of the past few days have brought me back to this thought, asked of me years ago by a very dear older lady.
As I sat next to my friend Sunday morning, very recently diagnosed with breast cancer, she was praising and trusting God. As I tried to sing the worship songs, I wasn't very worshipful. I was trying to absorb her positive attitude ... I was feeling her husband's pain ... but the songs words had me going thru the wringer of emotions, including sadness and madness ... but maybe that's exactly where God wanted me, maybe that is worship.
I know lots of people who have, and are, living many years beyond that diagnosis. But maybe we all need to live each day from the outlook of what that diagnosis would bring. It wouldn't mean, shouldn't bring, ditching our jobs and sailing around the world - but living each individual extraordinary day intentionally. Not running away from our life, but fully embody the life we're leading.
I've been thinking thru what to do for a devotional at tomorrow's last MOPS meeting. I had an idea ... but now I've been pondering this returned thought. We tend to live as if we have all the time in the world.
I ordered a bunch of books from the library a while back under the theme of "Creative Journalling" and a book that must be popular just came and I started reading it last night. Where did it begin? What if you only had 37 days left to live ... OKaaaaayy God ... I think this is where you want me to begin tomorrow's devotional. The book is Life Is A Verb. I think I ordered it because the title intrigued me. I had posted earlier the thought to ponder: "God is a Verb".
So ponder.
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
- Steve Jobs
"Time only seems to matter when it's running out."
- Peter Strup
"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it."
- James M Barrie (author of Peter Pan)
"What you do, [when you find out you have a year to live] if you have little kids, is lead as normal a life as possible, only with more pancakes."
- Marjorie Williams
2 comments:
Awesome post. Working as a nurse has helped me view life more dearly, with less assumptions. Hospice work brought it clearly into view. We don't have all the time in the world, we need to live each day as if it is our last, leaving everything as right as we can as night begins.
Living with dying helps with prioritizing what is important. I tell myself, we came into this world naked and empty handed, we go out naked and the only thing we take with us, is the type of relationships we have had with people. Eternity is a very long time, and it's not "what" we take with us, but "who".
And yes, the cry of our heart is worship and I believe very close to the tender heart of our Father.
Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints.
My Heather did eldercare for several years and worked close with hospice people occasionally. I had gotten a movie on Mother Teresa we watched together and I told Heather, in her own way, that's what she's doing too. Her desire was to help their last days have companionship and smiles.
One result of that time was seeing the joy they'd have when there was a loved one in their life that regularly called them. They'd anticipate the calls. So Heather weekly calls her Grandmas.
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