life is short

We’ve heard it lots:  life is short.  I suppose the idea that “life is short” is somewhat relative; however, what I do know is that life doesn’t last forever.  For everything there is a season… a time to be born, a time to die…

 

It’s hard to shake what’s happened to Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.  It seems to no longer exist… no longer on anyone’s radar screen.

There were 239 people on board…

Citizens of America, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, and Ukraine…  2 infants…  the oldest, age 79, I believe.

Vanished.

Gone.

In an instant.

What would their loved ones want to say to them now?  Better still, for those on that presumably tragic trajectory, what would they have said or done differently?  … what would they have done had they known such would be their last hour?

Would they have made a final phone call?  … expressing their love, respect, adoration, or forgiveness?

Would they have said a prayer?  … acknowledging One bigger, better, and more powerful and knowing than self?

Would they have spent intentional time in reflection? … focusing on what they have in common with others? … or would they still somehow have dwelt on differences that they once allowed to  divide?

The question is:  what would have been most important?

What if it was us? … what would we think?  … what would we do?  … what would we hope for and believe in if we truly realized life was short?

This is hard question, friends; it affects each and every one of us.  I sometimes think we live so much in the moment that we’re oblivious to life’s shortness.  In our world of instant gratification and lack of over-flowing gratitude — in our world that so often embraces dissension over unity in the name of personal passion — in a world where each of us have blatant blind spots — each of us — I feel like we’re missing something.  We’re missing the reality of the limitation of life; we don’t typically live with the end in mind.

As a friend’s elementary school daughter penned for a school project last week, “What if you woke up today with only the things that you thanked God for yesterday?”

Wow… through the minds of babes… that would certainly change what we said and did; would it not?  It would certainly amend our focus.

There was 1 American adult, Philip Wood, on board the fateful flight of Malaysia Airlines Saturday.  In the immediate aftermath, his mother’s words were as follows:  “I know in my heart that Philip’s with God.  Only people who know God can survive things like this.”

And from his brother:  “I just wanted to say to all the other families that are around the world:  we’re hurting; we know you’re hurting just as much, and we’re praying for you.”

I see a recognition of God… a submission to him… and an awareness of other people and what we have in common…

Life is short.

Respectfully,

AR