Let It Be Life That Takes Us

On Saturday, we attended the 80th birthday party of a wonderful man in our church.  It was a sweet celebration of him and all that he means to family and friends.

The same day, I read the following quote from Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.

The old man smiled. "I shall not die of a cold, my son. I shall die of having lived."

I wonder how often I let fears or anxieties or pressing tasks or stress take away my living.

Whenever God calls me to heaven - at whatever age and by whatever means - I want to have lived, really lived.

To have embraced what He put in my path, and faced the challenges, and celebrated the joys, and mourned the griefs, and climbed the mountains, and felt the sunshine on my face, and slowed for the simple pleasures, and heard the still small voice, and loved my family with all my heart, and served Him for all the right reasons.

Let's not fear the dreadful disease or the car accident or the weather disaster that might take us from this life, but let's fear drying up and shriveling away and not really living, but merely existing.

Let's choose to live today!