In our fallen world people are taken from us too soon. Today we celebrated the life of a friend, church member, brother in Christ. Laughed and cried, wishing that we had more.....hugs, chats, hand shakes, stories but more than anything TIME!! Please read the email below from a great friend: Couldn’t sleep tonight so, I wrote what was on me mind. Thought I’d share with ya, maybe you can relate: Im currently sleepless on the couch at 3 am, as all to often, unable to shut down the Imagination Factory. Im mulling over the usual.... Relationships, shortcomings, secrets I keep, music that I havent written yet... But tonight is a bit different, tomorrow is the day we bury a close acquaintance, an almost friend, someone I should have gotten to know better but didnt find the time. Im guilty, I failed to arrange a time and date for that lunch, even though he managed to mention it more than once, at nearly every encounter, just after the hug but always just before the goodbye, Id give him the obligatory and all to often used, Ye!, well do that, Ill get back with ya when life slows down a bit! If we had gone to lunch, Paul would still have been murdered. This is not the guilt that can cripple your mind after a person calls you, moments before committing suicide and you allow the phone to ring till it hits voicemail. This was a seemingly random act of horrible violence, the unplanned ending to a short story that should have been a novel, on an idle Monday....the deer struck by a semi while crossing a dark road, it WAS quiet twenty seconds ago. The routine trip from point A to B, made a hundred times almost arriving at B .....thinking, Typical night, been here before. Then, sudden, instant...dead.... Not breathing, no more lunch plans, no more worry, no more pain, no more living life the only way you are accustomed to living it. So, ye... I take inventory. God is providential, He works it out, has a plan and I am not privy to all the details, one day it will all make sense, (place your own comforting quote here), but at the end of the day? Bottom line? I wished Id have arranged that lunch and made it happen. When he sent me a text the day before he died and wished me and my family a Merry Christmas, I should have replied, What are you doing on Christmas?, Do you have friends, family, anyone to celebrate with? The only thing Paul wanted from me, and everyone that knew him was simply, for us to be proud of him. He needed us to affirm his actions and life. We were like his dad at a little league game, he was waking up every day and looking into the stands, scanning over the faces that did not matter, looking for the select few faces that carried weight in his eyes, did we show up? If he hits that homer today or makes that difficult catch will we see it? If he strikes out will we be there to dust him off and tell him, “You’ll get em’ next time champ!” I took time to pat him on the back with words but I could have done it more, with actions and time spent. He had transitioned to a life in Christ from a life of death. He wrestled with demons that I was on first name basis with a large portion of my life, he got bogged down in the same muck that held me stationary for years, trapped in a terminal holding pattern, circling an airport that will never accept your landing.... There but for the grace of God go I ? No, .... There but for the grace of God go us! It may be premature enlightenment, its probably as fleeting as a resolution made by an over weight American on Jan. 1st but, Im a little more aware today, on the lookout for the hurt people in my life that need a pat on the back and a little encouraging. I guess what Im really trying to say with way more words than necessary is, Who wants to go to lunch?!! Make time for those who matter to you!!
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 02:29:01 +0000
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