Our beloved Canine son, Carter, our 11-year old Yellow Lab, is very sick.
What started a few weeks ago, appearing to be the a routine distraction from food – a neighbor’s pet in heat – has manifested itself into complications we may not recover from. Cancer.
While our hearts are breaking, they are not completely shattered. Big difference.
We have no regrets with Carter. We have given and received all there is and was, to give and receive.
Peace and blessings. Faith, Hope and Love.
Life. Death.
Trust in the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength.
And then cry like a baby, until we can no longer stay awake.
What does that mean exactly? Growing up Luthern, in a small Pennsylvania town, there weren’t many Catholics. In fact, I don’t recall knowing what a Catholic was until college.
Well, life comes full circle and here I am, a devoted Catholic for over a decade. There are something like 15,000 members of our Holy Family congregation. All walks of like.
One of them, I see occasionally at Gold’s Gym. We recently had a nice conversation with these highlights:
Draw nearer to God and God will draw nearer to you. James 4:8.
True love doesnt force anything.
Greed, sloth, doubt, hypocracy – the four points in the circle surrounding the four squares.
Pay, pray and obey Catholic. This is how my friend (60-something) described himself.
God does not want good men in heaven, he wants Saints.
Gotta go. Time to work on praying, obeying, paying and demonstrating.
We don’t think about death often enough. Why? No idea. Fear, maybe. Not socially acceptable, maybe. I’m not really sure.
But I do know that no one I know thinks death should be dinner table talk.
At the end of the day though, people will talk at the dinner table about us after we’re gone. Some for a few seconds, some for a few days, others may never. And some may never stop.
Here’s a fresh perspective…on “legacy”…
Bob Stewart shares an insightful look at life, our Faith, and our responsibility to both. Take it away Bob….
“Mom called me the other day from Tennessee, where I was raised, to read to me a couple of obituaries. I know – that sounds so exciting, doesn’t it? But that’s what my mom does. She does it to let me know who I should know who either died or is related to someone who died.
But on this last call, she read to me about Albert Hamby, who died at the age of 87. Why should that stand out at all to me? I didn’t let this obituary go without a reverent moment of reflection. Albert was my pastor when I was little – when I made Jesus my Savior. That was and is a spiritual “marker” in my life, and an important person in showing me the way was Albert Hamby.
Are you living a legacy, as Dr. Johnny Hunt said in his book Building Your Leadership Résumé, which is going to outlast you? Are you building “markers” in other people’s lives that, after you are gone, are still there to help others along the way? It could be multitudes or your own family, and it is a question I am asking myself as well.
I am reminded of a song from Steve Green back in the 1980s, called “Find Us Faithful.” In the chorus, he stated, “Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful. May the fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey. Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.”
