sacred moments
I received news last week that my elderly aunt has just gone into a hospice to live out her remaining days. When I think about her, the one thing that keeps coming to my mind is her exuberant love of life, her stories and her resiliency. She truly epitomizes Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ penned words: It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up - that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.
Because nothing is permanent, we shouldn’t be stressing about things we have no control over because no matter what the situation is - things will change. Over a lifetime we will suffer hardships and even though our world seems a bit stormy now, it can’t keep raining forever. Life is tough. We need to, like my aunt often did, laugh, tell our stories, make others smile, encourage one another and above all, love each other like it is our last day on planet earth.
I recently read a story about a couple who had been in a relationship for about five years. They were in separate rooms in their one bedroom apartment just before Christmas. She hollered from one of the rooms to her now husband, “What do you want for Christmas?” He had been working full time, taking part-time university classes to finish his degree and volunteering as part of a youth mentor program and was tired. He said, “All I really want is a break.” Three weeks later was Christmas. He was unwrapping a very heavy shoebox and after getting through the mountain of duct tape and several layers of wrapping paper, he had his very own... brick. She told him, “I really didn’t understand what you wanted it for, but you sounded so sure of it. So here you go!” Lots of laughter and to this day, the brick sits on his desk. Every time he is overwhelmed or feeling like he’s taken on too much, he looks at that brick, picks it up, has a little laugh, and puts it back so he can carry on.
Perhaps we need to experience the sacred moments in our ordinary days when we stop and pick up our “brick”. What are those moments, those people, those objects, those verses, those memories that remind us to keep fighting?
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12