One Year To Live
What would you do if you only had one year to live?
Violence In Chicago
President Obama was disappointed that the Olympic Committee decided not to choose Chicago as the venue for the 2016 Olympics. As President Obama was formerly a successful “community organizer” in Chicago, this defeat must have been especially disappointing. Part of the reason that Chicago may not have been selected is due to how Violence has stricken much of the city. Just a couple of days ago a Chicago student videotaped a murder of an honor student. http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0929/p02s01-usgn.html (As a side note, it seems to be especially dangers to be a Black honor student. In the stories linked below, all the victims happened to be honor students.) http://www.smmirror.com/volume3/issue23/samohi_honor_student.asp http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2005/09/27/BAG4OEUD661.DTL http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-79459073.html http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/01/26/2009-01-26_progun_senatordesignate_gillibrand_shoul.html Link to raw video: http://www.myfox
I suspect that if someone puts off fulfilling their dream that long then it was never really a dream in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI think most people would want to have children if they didn't have them, or maybe more of them if they already did, if they had one year to live.
ReplyDelete“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” ~ James 4:14
ReplyDeleteEveryone should live their life as if they were not guaranteed tomorrow, because they are not.
I’ve seen a friend drop dead at 33, leaving behind three kids and a wife pregnant with their fourth; another die at 23 from leukemia, seemingly before their life really began. Life is over in a heartbeat no matter what age it comes for you, don’t waste a moment of it.
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” ~ Psalm 90:12
I suppose if you believe this life is all there was and all that matters, you would do all manner of things, but it is not.
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” ~ Colossians 3:1-4
Being focused on eternal things doesn’t mean you stoically just live out your days here. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof and we are meant to enjoy His creation, trust in the Lord and take the leap!
Kuyper says “no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
If money were no object I would take all my family and friends to Grand Cayman and have fun with them. It’s a beautiful place and could only be more beautiful when enjoyed with loved ones.
I highly recommend Kuyper’s essay, "When What is Mortal is Swallowed Up by Life”, it helped me a lot when my friends died. Here is the last portion:
“For life is good only so long as we do His work here and labor at the task He assigned us. But then that is also our imperative calling. Then we are born to serve Him, and born again with no other object but to glorify Him in the Son of His love. He gave us faith not to beatify us but to make Himself great in our salvation. Then our life is the Lord's, whether we remain here or whether we enter eternity.
And then our death and the death of our loved ones never comes except at the moment, and never otherwise than under those circumstances, which He deemed best for the full realization of his counsel and for the praise of His name. Then freely say that the weeping of the evening and the joy of the morning [Ps. 30:5] dwell in the same heart.
The inner life of those who want to live solely for their God is very mixed indeed. There is weeping over the acute pain felt by their wounded heart. But from that same heart also rises the sound of rejoicing and praise of what God prepared for the loved one who went away and for what He left in this life by way of consolation, love, and holy calling.”
A hard working man with a loving family...that's what dreams are made of. I think he spent his life well.
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