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Earthquake Living I had an interesting experience as I was out driving around this afternoon. It was one of those eye opening moments that God puts in our lives every so often to help give us a little bit of perspective on things.
I’ve entitled this blog, “Earthquake Living” in honor of my bother and sister in law, who just recently left the United States to work at an orphanage with Score Ministries in the Dominican Republic. Currently they’re in Costa Rica attending intensive language school for the next month before making the move to the DR officially. As I just discovered from her most recent twitter post, they experienced their first earthquake, to which Kristen commented “our new norm.” Hence the title, “Earthquake Living”.
But the title itself has meaning. Call it, a sort of, catch phrase life style, much like the philosophy of, “living like you’re dying”. So whether you’re literally living a life defined by earthquakes, or just figuratively, try and jump on my philosophical bandwagon for just a few minutes while I make my point.
Earlier today, when I was driving around, I found myself thinking of a few emails that I received this morning. Mostly just the normal stuff you would expect in your inbox and one sort of daily encouragement (of which I would normally delete to make room for more important things, but for some reason didn’t). The point of the email was simple—Don’t miss out on the present always preparing for the future (I’m paraphrasing, of course). I thought it was a good encourage. I thought, “Yeah, that was a good one”. ”Live like you’re dying!” is what I told myself. Yeah.
Well, the encouragement from the email quickly subsided, as it tends to when other more important things draw our attention away, when suddenly I had another moment. Only this time it wasn’t nearly as friendly as the first—the email that is…
It was just about 3 o’clock when I got to the Braddock Rd exit northbound on 495 when I noticed in the distance, an SUV flipped over on the side of the road. I mean, we’ve all seen accidents on the side of the road, but there was something different about this one. There were no emergency vehicles. No lights. No sirens. Nothing! There was something though. What there was, was a crowd of pedestrians gathered around the vehicle pressing against it. It suddenly occurred to me, this must have just happened. And if all those people were out there helping something must really be wrong.
I feared the worst! It thought that as I was getting closer any minute I was going to see someone trapped under the vehicle. Thankfully, that never happened. Rather than clearing carnage, the crowd was clearing wreckage. Still, the observation did something to me this afternoon. Thoughts just started racing through my mind. I considered how lucky I was not to have been in that car or that it wasn’t someone I knew (or maybe it was!). But those weren’t even the craziest thoughts! No. What really got me was the thought that the passengers in that car had absolutely no idea that they’d be in an accident today. Think about it. Even now, they’re probably still talking about what happened this afternoon or maybe there still dealing with the results while I’m sitting comfortably on my couch writing this blog.
I wonder what was going through the minds of all the people in Haiti the morning of January 12. For most, it was probably a normal day. I imagine people were expecting to go places, see friends or family, get work done, eat that special meal they love, pick up that kid from school, whatever. Bottom line, something happened that morning and this afternoon that put all those things still “undone” into perspective for those people in a way that only people who have been in similar circumstances can relate to.
So I’m back to why I titled this blog “Earthquake Living”. I think driving down the road I suddenly realized that, for many of us, sometimes it takes an earthquake (or a car crash—I don’t know, pick a disaster you can relate to) to get us to realize what the most important things are in life. For the family driving in that car, the most important thing in life was making it home tonight. For families in Haiti, the most important thing is appreciating today. This moment. Nothing else.
Do yourself a favor, don’t just “live like you dying.” What does that mean anyway? That’s too general a statement and can be taken far to liberally (Notice, I said liberally not literally. There’s a difference). Instead live life as an earthquake survivor or an accident survivor. Maybe that’s a real reality for you. Well then, what did you learn from it? You have now and nothing else. Smile more. Tell those close to you that you love them more. Hug people for longer than they’re comfortable and laugh when they think you’re weird for it. Don’t waist today thinking about tomorrow or what you’re going to do then. Do it today.
-b
PS-there’s more where that came from.
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