Life & Death

Maybe I'm getting older (27) and seeing the finer side of life. Or, maybe I'm just starting to wake up and smell the roses. Whatever it is, I have a much greater sense of how precious life is. And, I don't just mean being alive. I mean really living. We can go through the motions of doing our daily routine, rising early, going to work, eating, sleeping, even going to church. But that gets old (even at 27). I've never struggled with "What is the meaning of life?" because I've always known what it is--to love God & to serve others. But, I don't think I've ever really DONE it. Well, I think God has helped me turn over a new leaf this year. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I know that God has done a good work in my heart to help me do both better.

Something else I've always known, but never really experienced, is the saying that goes something like, "the end of one thing is the beginning of another". This is true, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't grieve the loss or the end of the thing that's over. Joel & I have been married for two years. We've loved living in our apartment--no shoveling of sidewalks, no raking leaves, no water heaters to fix, no windows to wash. It's been really nice. But, it is the end of that period in our lives. It is also the beginning of something new--a mortgage. No, it's more than that. It is the start of a great project. A beginning to a new chapter in our lives. And yet, it comes at a great price (& I don't just mean the cost of our loan).

For the past two weeks we've been working 12-14 hour work days helping my mother in law move out of the house we're buying (it's hers). It has been a lot of work because we've had to go through years of a life she's lived there. The great price is the not the hard work, the dusty closets or the heat of having no A/C. It is truly the end of a period in her life. She's had to go through countless boxes of memories of a life gone by. The death of Joel's dad almost six years ago makes this move bittersweet. His death (I'm told--I wasn't around to experience it for myself) was a bit unexpected, even though they knew it was coming; they hoped for more time. There was more time, so they thought. And yet, it was the end without them even knowing it.

Life is about more than just living--it's about really experiencing it, not missing an opportunity to love God & to serve others. Don't miss a chance, because it might be your last. And, if I may give a bit of advice, don't let you life get stored up in boxes. Clean out your basement, your attic, your garage. You don't need those things packed away--get rid of them. It's too much work to leave them behind when you're gone. And, as I recently heard in a sermon, "hearses don't pull U-hauls".