Saying good-bye

I was struck again with the shortness of life--the utter surprise it is for us when someone we love dies without warning.

Two families suffered the loss of a loved one today--one, lost a grandfather, a true spiritual patriarch of his family from a tragic stroke.  Another lost their loved one from a possible overdose.  I only knew this person through my close friend but he was an "every day buddy" to him.  In any case, there is great sadness for these two families even as I write.

I am only loosely-connected with these two men but I feel connected.  I think both were my age, or a little older.  Though they were in the fall season of life, their families probably did not wake up this morning expecting them to be gone, and so quickly.

I am reminded of James' words that "life is a vapor..."  I know that.  But today it has special significance for me.

I am wrestling with some worrisome issues that seem overwhelming.  But all of a sudden they appear trivial and insignificant because they are not life and death matters--which, incidentally, I have addressed already through my relationship with God and the experience of His saving grace.  It's instructive to consider the things we allow to hold our emotions hostage, while life and death swirl around us in full and living color.

We can miss what matters if we let the little matters capture our energy and rob us of our joy.  Two families are saying "good-bye" today.  My heart aches for them.  It's an experience my forty-five years as a pastor and, specifically, four and a half years of Hospice chaplaincy remind me, for which it is difficult to prepare.

Don't miss the moments that count by being subject to the things that really don't.  Saying "good-bye" is a big deal and its reality can be embraced when the hope of eternal life is present.