This morning I was checking my e-mail & I got a message from my friend Beth. She was sharing information about a friend of ours from High School who was killed yesterday afternoon. He was only 33. He leaves behind a wife and three children. He was a Christian, and certainly anyone who knew him is comforted by the knowledge that he is where he belongs, in heaven, but this whole event is still very sobering.
As a newly wed, I'm trying to eke out every bit of time that LD & I can have together. I realize that some of that time is spent doing one of the things he loves so much, flying! I try not to think about it being dangerous (& honestly I'm more scared riding the motorcycle with him) but after hearing about Jon today, I realize that we're only given so much time. I don't know how much time that is & you don't know how much time that is, but we certainly are called to do the most with the time we've got.
I'm thankful that God has given each one of us talents and opportunities. I pray that I am doing all that I can to use those gifts in a way that is appropriate & pleasing to God. I'm so thankful for my husband, my parents, my siblings, my nephews & nieces, my in-laws, my grandparents, and my friends. I know that I'm blessed. Looking at my life it is hard for me to not see that. I also know that I want to live life to its fullest. I'm glad that LD & I can fly places. I'm glad we have cars & can drive around. I'm glad he has a motorcycle and that when it is nice we can scoot around on that too. Hearing about a death like Jon's (he died doing some off-road mudding in his 4x4) doesn't make me want to shrink back and not do things, it makes me want to live life as much as possible!
That said, I don't think I'll be jumping out of LD's plane anytime soon, or bungee jumping, or anything else crazy like that, but I'd hate to stop doing what God has blessed us to be able to do & to stop using the talents He's given us!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I love you, Laur! I hope you don't mind, but when you told me you blogged about Jonny B, I read it and thought that Jodi would like to read it too. So I copied and pasted into an email. I know it's helping to keep her going knowing that so many people are thinking of and praying for them.
ReplyDeleteAlso enjoyed some of your other entries. Ah, the church one made me laugh. I'll have to check back to see how that part of your life is going. We are church shopping too. The CRC churches around us are LAME, so we're looking around... Ok, this is more like a blog entry than a comment, so I'll stop now! :)
Thanks babe. I'll admit as I read I got a little nervous, but I'm glad to see, as with so many other areas of our lives, we are indeed well matched.
ReplyDeleteAs Richard Bach said, one of life's greatest ironies is "self preservation to the point of death." I don't ever want to be so scared of dying that I never live.
My sympathies and prayers for you, your late friend, and his family.
ReplyDeleteLove, laugh, live - that's why we are here! All the rest (serve, honor, etc.) are all included in those 3 simple goals.
Much love,
Bob