stop what you are doing

Today I received some very difficult information about someone I love.  Information that is sad, no, not sad, more than sad, devastating.  Life altering.  Heartbreaking.  News that challenges your faith.  News that makes or breaks you.   This someone isn't close to my physically or even emotionally if we are talking about how often we speak or see each other, but someone I love all the same.  Someone who has shared life with me.  Someone for whom even though life gets busy, I still love.

Someone who's life is at stake.

Life.

I just spoke at a Prayer Shawl appreciation luncheon and the woman who spoke after me lost her son in a terrible, horrific accident.  When we were speaking together after the event, the thing that sticks out the most to me is when she said, "God may be good through it all, but at least you're all still together.  You are still together."  She was referring to my family and that my children are still living.  That my husband is still living.

Every day we wake up and our family or friends are still with us, it reiterates this false sense of security.  It confirms what we knew to be true the day before, we are still all here.

But the truth and reality is that we won't be.

We won't always be here.

Our spouses will not always be here.

Our parents will not always be here.

Our children will not always be here.

Our dear friends who become family will not always be here.

Life.

Sickness is a part of life.  Accidents are a part of life.  Handicaps are a part of life.  Death is a part of life.

I have a lot on my list.  Things to do, life to make happen, projects to accomplish.

But today...today I just sat with my kids.

My heart is full of sadness, and I cry at really random times.

But if learning about the heartbreak of one family can teach us even a very small thing for our own life, it is this.

Stop what you are doing.

Stop what you are doing and tell those that you love that you love them.

Hug them, embrace them, kiss on them, and spend time with them.

Spend time with them.

You never know when the time will run out.

We've all heard it before and it sounds so cliche' but really, when you are at a loss for words and don't know what to do with heart break, they are the words that remind you of what is important.

Go ahead, hug someone and spend time with the people you love in your life.

And while you are embracing those that you love, please pray for the families that are facing life and death decisions.  Pray that faith is renewed and strengthened and that they see God.  Pray deeply that in the face of heartache, they can see God.