Has this happened to you? Someone you know takes a sudden turn for the worse, and in less time than you’d like, their health, safety or financial well-being deteriorates drastically or their life comes to an end. That’s happened to some folks at our church recently, and it always brings me up short.
Without warning, they’re cut off from their usual routines or relationships. (Here I think of natural disasters, life-ending physical conditions or economic downturns.) They may find themselves suddenly dependent on family, friends, healthcare professionals or civil servants for the basics of life. Their self-reliance may evaporate. Their generosity, usefulness, spirituality or sense of purpose might be severely curtailed or compromised.
These experiences of others’ sudden loss remind me that my own life calendar is getting shorter, that my time as a functioning, purposeful steward of God’s gifts might also come to a sudden end.
I’m not bothered by the idea that any of this could happen to me; that’s something I take for granted. What strikes me here is the realization that I have fewer years in which to do what God has tasked me to accomplish. That my capabilities might empty out suddenly, that my usefulness for God’s purposes will perhaps wind down.
Where do these experiences take me? To focus on here-and-now. This place, these people. These situations. These challenges. These gifts. To set aside any notion that my retirement is best measured by its leisure time. Where possible, to commit myself to whatever is true, right, lovely, just, wise or caring. To rejoice in whatever the Spirit helps me to accomplish. To measure my worth—by even the smallest standards—with gratitude that I am still here. Still kicking. Still smiling. Still playing with words.
Still blessed to live alongside beloved people like you…!
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