"If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."         -William Penn

If there's one thing that has been made really clear to me in this past year or so, it is that life is truly fleeting. We may claim to know so much about life and technology today, but yet we do not know the moment we will enter this Earth, nor the moment we shall leave it. We do not know of an accident around the corner, or an illness around the bend. Watching what happens in the lives of people who are near and dear to me (even if only through the internet), I can see how short-sighted we are. Our vision is so impaired. We think we know reality as it truly is, but we only see a speck of reality. So when our turn comes, it hits like a tsunami out of the blue. We are bowled over and left wondering what just happened.

I don't think we need to live in fear of what's around the corner, nor be pessimistic about life, but we need to make the most of the life we have been given, being aware that we don't know when our last moment may be. We don't know when the person in front of us will end their time here on Earth. Thus, the William Penn quote. We need to make the most of the moment as if it were our last, because one day it will be. Live with no regrets. Live to the fullest. Make our words count. Make our actions worthy of the time GOD has given us.

I found out this weekend that two people I have been following on Caringbridge sites died. I was not expecting this news, so it was a double whammy. Actually, one site was from the family of a boy who died 17 months ago; the news this weekend was that the dad died suddenly of a possible heart attack. I think of what this family has gone through watching their child/brother suffer over a long period of time. Now I think of the grief they will go through with a sudden death of the leader of their home. My heart wants to ask GOD "why???" yet again, but I just finished reading Philip Yancey's book, Disappointment With GOD, and I know not to expect an answer to that question. I know that GOD's ways are above our ways. HE is GOD and who am I to say I know better than HIM? HE sees the whole picture; I see only a shred of it. It does not make it painless, but it does give a measure of peace.

What I got most from that book was this question: will we love GOD simply for who HE is? GOD yearns for our love. HE wants to be loved for who HE is, not what HE can do for us. We are like children who want, want, want. We do not often remember to consider the feelings of the giver. We are concerned with our own fulfillment, our own comforts, our own success. LORD, open my eyes just a smidgen more, that I may see a glimpse of how YOU see.