I sit with people who are dying.
On a regular basis, I sit by the bedside of someone who knows that they have only days or hours to live. As a pastor, I am invited to join people who are breathing their last breaths. There are a few professions in which people get to do this, and I have one of them. I say “get to do this” because it is a great gift.
You might be surprised to know that when people are dying, they don’t spend all that much time thinking or talking about dying. Sure, they commonly mention feeling afraid or uncertain. At times, there are questions about death or what happens after you die. A pastor or chaplain is usually called into discuss such things. But, I would say, the primary tone and content of discussion is not what we might expect. - People who are dying talk about living. They talk about life.
They share stories about their lives. They focus in on moments when they really experienced life. They recount memories of family members that lead to smiles across faces, bellies shaking with laughter, and even singing. It’s true.
When people are dying their hearts remember life. Because their hearts are alive. Rarely do folks who are dying talk about promotions at work, how much money they made, or awards won.
These are things we spend a lot of time pining for, but they aren’t what is remembered, what is cherished. Instead, people talk about Christmas morning when they found their children had woken in the night and unwrapped presents without the parents. They talk about jumping off the dock at the lake, ice cream at the Braves game when it must have been 100 degrees, and the time Dad came out of the ocean wave that knocked him down and left his swimming suit somewhere in the Pacific.
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I’ll be honest. They never talk about money. Never talk about business. Never talk about crushing it from age forty to fifty-five to move from middle management to senior leadership at the firm. It’s not to say those things aren’t important and don’t set people and future family members up for success. I’m just saying it’s not what will be on our minds and on the tip of our tongues when we have two hours to go. People talk about the drive home after leaving their son at college the first time. They talk about Thanksgiving when Grandpa prayed his short and simple prayer of blessing, or when their daughter sang her first solo in the school choir. They talk about the picnic blanket, laying on their back, holding hands, watching the sun move through the clouds. They talk about life.
Those moments are the ones you will talk about when your life here is ending and you are looking to the next. I think it is actually a common thread that holds us in this life and then goes with us to the next. The life stories shared before death all include one common thing: space. Not like space: the final frontier. No, just simply space in your life to breathe. The end-of-life memories that are lifted up are the ones when intentional space was set aside, or found by surprise, where people could actually live and breathe and love and laugh.
One common denominator for real life moments is the space for life to happen. David said that God brought him into a spacious place.
He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” — Psalm 18.19 The space was the place where David experienced rescue, a place where God delighted in him. What would a spacious place look like for you today?
Maybe it is reading this devotional or it’s the walk you are about to take. Maybe you don’t have much space right now. Think about it:What is one way you could create some space to encounter God today? What is one way you could create space to encounter the people you love today?
God is looking to meet with you. He can make that happen anytime, anywhere. But, when we create intentional space we are likely to find God there. Who knows? With some simple space set aside by you, maybe today, could become a day that you and your people will talk about for years to come.
Written for Devotionals Daily by Jacob Armstrong, author of Breaking Open. * |
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Do you have space in the margins of your life? Or is every moment packed and planned? What would a spacious place look like for you today? Connect with Jesus! Connect with the ones you love! |
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