Reflection

I've been reflecting a lot on life the past couple days and what is truly valuable in life. There are many reasons that this has been on my mind. For one, I enter a new decade in my years in less than a week and I'm really not sure where time has gone. Secondly, my dearest friend and I have spent many hours this week talking on the subject of what's valuable and important in life. Her grandpa was in an ATV accident over the weekend and ended up with brain surgery, and as usually happens when spending hours in a waiting room of a hospital, life reflection takes place. We've been talking about this some on and off over the past couple months, but it's really become the center of our thoughts the past few days as we reflect on what really matters in life. Another friend called me tonight and her dad is in the hospital, with a possible heart attack. I think of yet another family of friends who lost their son and brother, and his kids lost their dad, a few months ago. He would have turned 42 today and I know it's going to be a difficult day for his family. My thoughts also go to friends and family members fighting cancer and chronic/fatal diseases. But, when you think of it, we all have a fatal disease because we all eventually die. So what really matters? What is valuable?

Does chasing after the 'perfect job' with the high wages, long hours, and stress truly bring happiness, or does it just buy more stuff that we have to worry about and make us feel like we have to earn more, work more, climb the corporate ladder so we can keep getting because the more we get the more we have to have more, it seems. Yet the more we get, the more we have to work, so we never get to enjoy the nice home, the boat, the cars, the clothes, the life we've been trying to attain because the more we get, the more we have to work to pay for it all. All that 'stuff' may be nice, but what about our well being, our health, our time to enjoy life. What about our families? Where do they fit into this crazy circle of working, getting, paying for? Where do they fit in the value scale in our lives? Don't we, especially as Americans, have it all backwards? Shouldn't we put people over jobs and material things? What if we started to look at success as a happy family who spends time together, and if we don't have all the things that supposedly buy happiness, so what? Happiness cannot be bought, nor can true contentment in life! If our hearts are content, and we put our true value in being a child of God, it's much easier to relax and enjoy the short life we have here on earth. The people around us will enjoy being around us much more if we live this way as well. Having a job and enjoying it is wonderful, but knowing how to prioritize life is essential. What will truly matter at the end of our lives? What will others remember us for-our love, our joy, how we enjoyed life, the time we spent showing others we cared for them, or how stressed we were, how much time we poured into a job, and how we were never around those closest to us? Will our loved ones even know we truly loved them?

"You should know better than to say, Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!" What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. You should say, "If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things." James 4:13-15