Tuesday, October 10, 2017

the reality of death


St John Cassian talks to us about anger again today in A Year with the Church Fathers. And I'm getting sick and tired of him going on and on about it!! Just kidding. But there was something he says today that really stood out for me.

He said that when we consider the fact that we will die, pretty soon when you think about how short life is, it helps us to realize that the reasons we thought we had for getting angry were nonsense. And this is true for all of our sinful temptations, right?

You've heard it said that we should live our lives as though every day was our last. And there is a certain truth to that. It does help us to remember what is important and what can truly slide. Like Tyler Durden taught us in Fight Club, we don't want our possessions to own us. We don't want to spend all of our time and money collecting things we don't really want to impress people we don't really like. When we are in our last few moments of life, what will we wish we had done differently?

Let's let the unimportant slide. Let's focus on what truly matters. Let's love the people in our lives and make their lives better. Let's leave the world a little better than we found it. Let's help answer the prayer, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

God, thanks for giving us perspective. Please give us the wisdom to live it.

1 comment:

Julie said...

Amen. I would have spent more time with our sons.