Brevity and Urgency

A recent experience with a patient re-opened my eyes to the beauty and brevity of life. I cared for a twenty-two year-old male with terminal cancer for several days. He had been placed int eh cardiac-surgical unit after a team of surgeons attempted to extract a cancerous mass that enveloped major vessels and organs in his abdomen; he had to be on cardiopulmonary bypass during the operation. Following the complicated procedure, the young man faced a long and painful recovery period. When his youthful wife visited, he would be hopeful and strong, eager to hold his five-week-old daughter and share in her tender life. The patient talked about returning to his college basketball team and working again. But late on night, I was cleaning the incisions that criss-crossed his thorax, and the weight of his prognosis caught up with him. I prayed with him and he started to cry, not for himself, but for those he loved. He cried about his mother worrying about her only son; he cried about his wife and how much he adored her, how he wanted to grow old with her. Mostly, he cried for his daughter, his beautiful tiny infant. He said that he wanted the opportunity to walk her down the isle on her wedding day. I couldn't keep my eyes from brimming as he released his pent-up fears.

I asked God why life is seemingly robbed from the young and responsible. Why is it wasted on those who take it for granted? And as I watched the young man, I saw the truth as if I was looking in a mirror. I take life as it comes because it is easy. I waste time because it is cheap. When I skip exercise, its because I'm strong enough. I let an opportunity to share salvation slip because I'm "short on time". True excellence isn't expected, just as godliness isn't human nature. In lieu of life's fragility, sharing the Truth of His Word, being a Light and living for the Gospel is essential. Only He know how long we have on this earth, or how long our unsaved friends have. Lets let our "light so shine before men, that they may [...] glorify our Father in heaven," Matthew 5:16.