You Will Die (So Will I)
Want to listen instead?I like to remind myself that I could die at anytime. Or that my loved ones could die at anytime. Yes, it's a scary and quite literally morbid thought.I woke up this morning to find an article about a teenager who was dropped off with a friend on a sidewalk and moments later was struck by a hit-and-run driver. Life ended at 19. Below the article was a link to another about a single mom who died of health complications and whose one-year-old child unrelatedly choked on her food and also died. Wasn't there some TV show about all the strange ways people go? How bizzare.Usually, our own death and the death of those around us is a thought we don't want to entertain. But our lives would take on a much different tone if we kept that in mind.If our loved ones could die at any moment and under a myriad of circumstances, we can't waste time holding grudges--both for the sake of our relationships and for the sake of our salvation.Our loved ones could die at anytime. If we can't be pleasant towards the people around us, at least we can train ourselves to think pleasant thoughts about them.I have a friend who makes me so angry. Just does completely inappropriate things that annoy me. And I can't go more than a few days without saying something nice to this person. Because acting loving generates feelings of love, forgiveness, kindness. And now all my friends are checking their phones to see if I'm talking about them :D!Is this double-minded? Not at all. I genuinely love my friends. I love everyone. My goal is to grow love between people. And my goal is to daily be a more loving person. If I train my thoughts to be loving, if I deliberately choose to act in love, I will achieve that goal.I'm really counting on that verse that says, "Love will cover a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8).So let's stop it with the grudges already. Unless our life goal is to be bitter people, what's the point? Unless our life goal is to poison our own lives, what's the point?When a begrudging thought comes to our minds, let's imagine it's a balloon that we release. Or picture the thought as a whisper going in one ear as we open the door to let it out of the other.Then let's replace the begrudging thought with a positive one--about that person if we're able or just a generally positive thought. Let's think "Wow, that cloud looks so cool" or "Oooh, I really like the scarf I'm wearing today" or "Hey, self, remember when so-and-so made you laugh about this-and-that." Before we know it, this "release of the negative and lift of the positive" thought process will become a habit.And in committing to that we become more Christ-like--which is the whole point of our faith anyway.You could die at anytime. Pump as much love into the world as you can before you go.
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