life & death
(i wrote this on tuesday & was going to post this a couple of days ago, but decided not to. but now i am... haha.)
there is such a fine line in between.
lately i've been thinking about that fine line a lot.
saturday, andrea & i were suppose to go to cue. i took surface streets to drop off mom, and they took the freeway. their car flipped. luckily, her &jerry came out of it with only a few cuts. when i got to the scene to pick them up & saw the car, i was pretty surprised that they came out alright. all i could think/do at the time was keep thanking God that they were alright while js standing there, staring at the car, thinking how much worse it could have been.
air france 447 went down with 228 passengers. those passengers probably boarded that plane thinking they would be seeing friends/family in a few hours. looking forward to the plans they had. there were four other people who were suppose to be on that flight. they are quite lucky.
in hs, my friend's oldest brother got into a car accident &died. he was a sr in hs. he was suppose to go to college in the fall.
when i get to work, i check my email & read the news first. & i often see headlines like this: at least 9 dead in DC Metro crash, woman stomped to death by cows (o_O), teen kills sister, 2 shot in the head by intruders, michael jackson is dead, etc. (reading the news is depressing T_T )
the dead individuals have been reduced to mere numbers. when i read these numbers, &just see them as numbers, just one part of the statistics, i feel detached. as if they were one whole world removed from me. but when i start thinking about what those people must have been thinking as they boarded that plane/car/train/etc., as they started that day, what they had planned for the weekend, for next week, for next month, etc., then do i realize that i relate to them. they are just like me. they are another human, who had once walked, breathed, laughed, cried, planned, &thought, believed, that it wasnt their time to die yet.
like many people my age, i am often caught up in this mentality that i still have awhile to live. im only 20. so scientifically i have a good chance of living another 30-40+ years (that number may be less as i am now horribly out of shape T_T i am a fatty). but statistically there is still a probability that i may not. we like to believe that we won't be part of that however many % that, statistically, are expected to die. but someone's gotta be part of that percentage, &sometimes it ends up being one of us.
because we think we have the rest of our lives still, we don't treasure our time &lives enough. we waste it on a bunch of meaningless things. i feel like a lot of people want to grow more intimate with God. they want to grow spiritually, but they feel no urgency because they think they have the rest of their lives to do it. they can do it after this movie, after this test, after this hang out, after this trip, after this game, after they get their MBA, after they get married, til they reach their death day, &realize that they really didn't have as many 'after's as they thought they did.
yesterday's reports on michael jackson dying struck me as bizarre. i don't know why. im not even a crazed fan. but hearing about deaths always strikes me in a weird way. just like when i heard about psteve passing away. it's weird thinking about the plans they had for the future &knowing those plans won't be coming to fruition. one hand, i'm envious of them that they are done with this life&world &are on to the real stuff. but on other hand, i am thankful &glad i still have time to grow closer to God &serve/glorify Him here. :) time is limited, life is short. i am determined to spend more time &effort on my relationship with God, cause that's really all that matters in the face of eternity.
on another note, whenever i hear about deaths, i wonder where/how those people are doing now. are they jumping for joy at the sight of their Lord &Savior? or are they hanging their heads in shame, sorrow, ®ret. in one case, it's glorious. in the other, it's terrifying. eternity is a real long time. &the decisions we make affect how we will spend eternity.
there is such a fine line in between.
"when their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day, their plans come to nothing."
psalm 146:4
lately i've been thinking about that fine line a lot.
saturday, andrea & i were suppose to go to cue. i took surface streets to drop off mom, and they took the freeway. their car flipped. luckily, her &jerry came out of it with only a few cuts. when i got to the scene to pick them up & saw the car, i was pretty surprised that they came out alright. all i could think/do at the time was keep thanking God that they were alright while js standing there, staring at the car, thinking how much worse it could have been.
air france 447 went down with 228 passengers. those passengers probably boarded that plane thinking they would be seeing friends/family in a few hours. looking forward to the plans they had. there were four other people who were suppose to be on that flight. they are quite lucky.
in hs, my friend's oldest brother got into a car accident &died. he was a sr in hs. he was suppose to go to college in the fall.
when i get to work, i check my email & read the news first. & i often see headlines like this: at least 9 dead in DC Metro crash, woman stomped to death by cows (o_O), teen kills sister, 2 shot in the head by intruders, michael jackson is dead, etc. (reading the news is depressing T_T )
the dead individuals have been reduced to mere numbers. when i read these numbers, &just see them as numbers, just one part of the statistics, i feel detached. as if they were one whole world removed from me. but when i start thinking about what those people must have been thinking as they boarded that plane/car/train/etc., as they started that day, what they had planned for the weekend, for next week, for next month, etc., then do i realize that i relate to them. they are just like me. they are another human, who had once walked, breathed, laughed, cried, planned, &thought, believed, that it wasnt their time to die yet.
like many people my age, i am often caught up in this mentality that i still have awhile to live. im only 20. so scientifically i have a good chance of living another 30-40+ years (that number may be less as i am now horribly out of shape T_T i am a fatty). but statistically there is still a probability that i may not. we like to believe that we won't be part of that however many % that, statistically, are expected to die. but someone's gotta be part of that percentage, &sometimes it ends up being one of us.
because we think we have the rest of our lives still, we don't treasure our time &lives enough. we waste it on a bunch of meaningless things. i feel like a lot of people want to grow more intimate with God. they want to grow spiritually, but they feel no urgency because they think they have the rest of their lives to do it. they can do it after this movie, after this test, after this hang out, after this trip, after this game, after they get their MBA, after they get married, til they reach their death day, &realize that they really didn't have as many 'after's as they thought they did.
yesterday's reports on michael jackson dying struck me as bizarre. i don't know why. im not even a crazed fan. but hearing about deaths always strikes me in a weird way. just like when i heard about psteve passing away. it's weird thinking about the plans they had for the future &knowing those plans won't be coming to fruition. one hand, i'm envious of them that they are done with this life&world &are on to the real stuff. but on other hand, i am thankful &glad i still have time to grow closer to God &serve/glorify Him here. :) time is limited, life is short. i am determined to spend more time &effort on my relationship with God, cause that's really all that matters in the face of eternity.
on another note, whenever i hear about deaths, i wonder where/how those people are doing now. are they jumping for joy at the sight of their Lord &Savior? or are they hanging their heads in shame, sorrow, ®ret. in one case, it's glorious. in the other, it's terrifying. eternity is a real long time. &the decisions we make affect how we will spend eternity.
go ahead &tell me that "Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves. (eric hoffer)" we'll see who is more worthy of our faith: God or man, when we're all dead to the world & alive in the spiritual realm.2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.psalm 146: 2-4
dude, word.
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