Why don’t you start living?
- Kyle Snyder: Live on Purpose
- July 28, 2021
- 703
“Men’s souls turn gray before their hair does.” —Charles Lamb.
The past year and a half has been really hard mentally on everyone. It was difficult to know what was safe and what was unsafe, and the temptation to be fearful was off the charts.
My observations have been everyone was fearful, whether they wanted to admit it or not. If they weren’t fearful of the virus, they were fearful of their rights being taken away. I even know people who say there was nothing to fear, but by their comments, I think they were the most afraid. However, I consider the best time of my life during this pandemic was the shutdown because it gave me time to relax and evaluate my life.
My observation is most of us are not living. The whole time during the shutdown, I heard people say they could not wait till it was over. I actually was sad when it ended; my life was much more peaceful during that time.
Most people would probably never say they were mad at God for allowing the pandemic to happen, but I have to wonder how many people feel that way without realizing it. I think God gave us a marvelous opportunity with the pandemic. It gave us time to rediscover him. To those of us who say Jesus is the way, we sure don’t act like it. I was in awe as to how much complaining there was, and don’t get me wrong. I am as guilty as the next person.
Who we are becoming is way more important than what we are doing. The apostle Paul listed all the great things he could do, but he said if he didn’t have love, it wouldn’t matter. I think we are too focused on what we can do for God, rather than being children of God. My mother thought I would make a good writer, but she loves me because I am her child. She doesn’t care how many people I touch through my writing. She cares that I love her and love other people the way she taught me.
I tell my wife Stacey life is easy; it is us that make it hard. Sunday evening we went to Malabar Farm and drove up Mt. Jeerz. It is a 1,300-foot-high hill that is taller than the Empire State Building. The sky was painted with a brilliant shade of reddish orange. The woods and the rolling hills made it a great memory. On the way back we had to stop at a railroad crossing. It was dark, and there were trees near the track. Every so often she would say, “There is the last one.” Then she would say, “Oh no, there are more.”
In the grand scheme of life, what I just described doesn’t matter. However, I would argue it makes all the difference. In our bedroom we have a saying hanging on the wall that says, “Collect moments, not things.” When was the last time we collected moments?
I had the opportunity to talk to a very small number of people who knew they were not going to live much longer. I never heard them talk about how much money they had or how big their house was. I heard them talk about their family and about what great memories they had. I even heard of a man who wanted a million-dollar check to be in his coffin. When the calling hours came, people remarked over the little piece of paper sticking out of his breast pocket. Someone asked his widow what was on the paper. She told them about the million-dollar check he wanted to be buried with, so she wrote him an IOU.
When we die, we will leave behind all our possessions and memories good or bad. I don’t know about you, but I want to leave behind good memories for all. I might even ask if a U-haul can be put behind my hearse, just to give all the people in attendance one more good laugh.