Sep 9 2009

News travels fast, bad news even faster…

It was almost 3 yesterday afternoon when I received the news on Facebook. One of my classmates from high school and friends from my youth group at church had been found dead in his driveway. He was only 31 years old and was survived by a wife and two young children.

Even though he was in my youth group, my graduating class, and I even drove him and his sister to and from school just about every day I still never really took the time to get to know him. See, he was a jock and I was a geek. As I’ve gotten older I can definitely see that these imaginary boundaries we put ourselves in in high school are silly.

Of course, we do the same as adults, just on a different level, and even towards our brothers and sisters in Christ. We really need to learn the lesson of 1 Corinthians 12; that no matter what our talents may be, we are still equal in God’s eyes, and should treat each other equal as Christians.

I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on Tim yesterday. I was telling my wife last night that it’s weird to think of this 17, 18 year old kid I knew back then would only live to 31. I’m not sure why that’s significant, just that it’s the thought that reoccurs over and over right now. Maybe it’s that we really, truly don’t know how long we have until we’ve had that final day and I’m brushing against the realization of my own mortality. Life is a vapor and all that. (James 4:13-17) One of the greatest lessons Jesus taught was to be prepared. (Matthew 25:1-13 etc…) Events like this really emphasize those lessons.

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