New Year: Life is Fragile

  Dotse and I hope you had a joyful and worshipful Christmas season as we celebrated the birth of our Savior; and we wish for you and your family a New Year filled with much love, peace, and happiness.  

Chuckle: Husband: "Do you have any idea how many really great people there are in this country?" Wife: "No, I don't, but I'm sure it's one less than you think."

Good Quote: “Time wasted is existence; used is life.” --Edward Young

LIVE THIS YEAR AS IF IT IS YOUR LAST

"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath" (Psalm 39:4-5 NIV). "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes"  (James 4:14 NIV).

I don't mean to be morbid, but it seems appropriate that we should live the new year with a view toward the end of our lives. We would be wise to pause and think about how we would want to be remembered -- about what is important in life. I think most of us will want people to remember us as someone who made a difference in the lives of others. Once we've decided how we want to be remembered, then we should work our way backwards to the present and start doing those things for which we want to be remembered: loving, caring, serving, giving – and sharing the love of Christ.

Robert Morris said, "I hate funerals and would not attend my own if it could be avoided, but it is well for every person to stop once in a while to think of what sort of a collection of mourners he is training for his final event."

We should live and let happiness surprise us. Happiness will surprise us if we give ourselves to others. Jesus, in the upper room, wrapped a towel around his waist, took a basin of water, and washed his disciples feet. He assumed the role of a common servant and said to his disciples: "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done for you" (John. 13:15 NIV). Then Jesus concluded, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed (happy) if you do them" (John. 13:17 NIV).

I believe Jesus knew that happiness is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it flies away and the more elusive it becomes. But if you stoop and serve, it will light on you unexpectedly. The happiest people are serving people -- happiness just sneaks into their lives, sometimes when they least expect it. Real happiness is a by-product of a well lived life -- as was modeled by Jesus.

The deaf, blind, and mute Helen Keller put it this way: "I find life an exciting business -- and most exciting when it is lived for others." Danny Glover had this to say: "We make a living by what we do. We make a life by what we give." If we live as if this year might be our last by serving others, 2018 will be the best year of our lives.

Love, Jerry & Dotse