Today I thought to myself of how precious life was and just how short of a time we are put on this earth. From the very moment of our first cry we are set up to ride a rollercoaster…for some the ride is long, for others it is short-lived, many just experiencing the thrill of a joy ride downwards.  This week I heard of three deaths, one was of a 42 year old man who dropped dead at the news that his father had passed away while on the operating table; the second was of that elderly man who obviously had lived his life long enough to produce a son, who then passed away the same day as he did. The third was of another man who lived a proud life serving God and probably lived a fulfilling life until his last breath. The news of death often makes us think of how short life really is. For some, it is just another obituary for others it is a wake up call. News that often gets put in the back of the newspapers, which ends up at the bottom of our bird cage at times. Often we take life for granted living every minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, and year by year…counting another grey hair on our head, or another one that bit the dust and was found at the bottom of the sink. Another wrinkle, another stress line another pound, another bill, another year later….we just live the life on a treadmill never looking behind but not sure what we are chasing just running, running as Forest Gump did because he was told, “run Forrest, run!” But what are we chasing? What are we running from? This is often the question that we are too busy to stop and ask ourselves…often because we already know the answer. The truth is what we seem to be running from and it is often when God takes us off that treadmill for a split second that these questions pass through our minds and the answer is very clear, but yet obstructed by our very selfish nature and disbelief. Call it living in denial but most of us live our lives this way…too busy to look in the mirror, too busy to take time to smell the roses, or to pick up the phone and call someone who we haven’t spoken to in the longest time, perhaps because we fear rejection. Too often words that have been rehearsed go unheard because of our coward, sinful nature which keeps us from confronting the truth and the ugly pride that keeps us in the darkness often shadows us from the light of forgiveness. If “the truth shall set you free” is the answer, than why do we live our lives in such disbelief? Why do we complicate our lives so often that we choose to live in denial and not in the truth?

Life is very complicated and I often think of the words that Forrest Gump said in his movie, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.”  How true, life can be sweet at times, and sometimes it can be sour. Life can have its ups and downs, its nuts and its raisins. Often we are not sure what to expect yet we grasp life by the horns and force ourselves to live it unprepared and unwilling to accept what comes our way. The mere truth is enough to keep us from moving forward yet it is that truth that keeps us from sinking under. For many this is not the case…the few of us that decide to face life as unpleasant as it can present itself to be often live it because the only other alternative to life is death and who wants that?

I choose life over death because I know that life can be fulfilling and that as long as I have a breath in my lungs I will grasp every second and millisecond of life with all my might. Death on the other hand is a dark and unknown journey that many of us fear to explore. However, it is by faith that we can accept death knowing that we have eternal life in our creator and that He and only he can give life and take it. It is that total trust that we must have in Him that will get us through the journey of life and then help us enter that dark path that leads into the journey of death. Eternal life lies on the other end of that path for many of us, for some it doesn’t however. It is that doubt that causes fear…the doubt of whether or not we can make it past that dark tunnel. Shall we find light at the end of that tunnel or will there be eternal darkness? This is a vital question that we must all ask ourselves. Have you asked yourself that question today? I hope so because if you were to close your eyes tonight and not wake up in the comfort of your bed what side of the tunnel do you think you’d be in, the light side or the dark? Think about it.