Life is a gift. One which we can’t control. Our breath is not our own. It comes to us as a gift. Really all is a gift. We struggle and strain, we gather and build, grasping for our place in the world. Yet every good thing comes to us free of charge with no strings attached. Many of us strive to build our lives, to make something of ourselves, to grab our piece of the pie and take all we can get. Yet everything we build, make, grab or get in this life, it all stays behind when we leave. We come into the world naked and penniless and that is the way we leave.
That being the case, we should realize that life is so much more than what we can build or make, grab or get. And yet so much of our time, effort, and emphasis is placed on these very things. And while these efforts can provide some level of comfort and satisfaction, they end. Sometimes abruptly during our lifetimes. Always at the end of our journey.
And our lives on earth do end. Not only that, but they are rather short when viewed through the lens of eternity. Some refer to our short life as the dash which appears between two defining dates, our birth and our death. That visual puts life’s brevity in perspective. These aspects of life, that it is a free gift with no strings attached, that we enter it with nothing and exit the same, and that it’s brief, are not meant to discourage or hinder us from living fully. Quite the opposite. They are meant to free us to live lives of purpose and to keep things in proper perspective. They are meant to free us to live lives of abandon, living freely and lightly, enjoying the blessings and gifts of our Heavenly Father while stewarding these resources for the benefit of others.
My Father was a pilot. Fascinated by flight as a child, he began hanging around an airstrip as a teen where a young pilot took him under his wings and taught him about planes and about flying. He eventually taught Dad to fly when Dad was only 14 or 15. This began a lifelong love affair with flight culminating in Dad’s service to our country as an officer and pilot in the United States Air Force. Dad’s great loves in life were God, Mom, our family and flying, in that order. The fighting spirit he developed as a fighter pilot served him well as he lived his life for the things that mattered most to him. He fought the good fight for these things.
For his faith, he put this above everything else, as he should. His belief in God, the truth of His word and the presence of his Holy Spirit preceded every other belief and priority. It guided his moral code and every decision he made. When he would have rather secured a flying job upon retirement from the Air Force and the pastor of our church asked Dad to serve full-time as an associate pastor, Dad put his personal preferences aside. After much thought and prayer, though he would have preferred to fly, he believed the opportunity afforded to him at the church was what God had provided and desired for he and Mom. So he followed. For Mom and the family, though he was diagnosed with dementia and Parkinson’s disease later in his life, he continued to offer his love and affection through a decade of the wasting disease, always showing humility and dignity, even in the most humiliating and degrading of circumstances. He was a fighter.
Parkinson’s and dementia didn’t defeat Dad. Dad defeated them. Dad lived his life fully to the end, fighting the good fight and running his race with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength. He remained to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary and died just a few months later. This 50th wedding anniversary was his final gift to Mom. He died in faith.
Carrie and I have a dear friend whose parents were both diagnosed with liver cancer about a decade apart. Her mother was miraculously healed and her father died from the disease. Her testimony is that her mother taught her how to live in faith and her father taught her how to die in faith. Her Mother lived a full life and eventually died in time. Some of us will live a long full life. For others, the time will be cut short. In the measure of eternity, time is short for all of us.
