I found the following draft from last August tonight when I was looking through my #wordpress app. 

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve spent more time in hospitals than I care to think about. One of those, an elderly woman with pulmonary embolisms and the other, a young man with brain aneurysms. 

Fortunately for my friend Joan, doctors were able to treat her condition and she was able to go home after a week. Unfortunately for my cousin Kyle, he never gained consciousness enough to know he even had visitors. 

I can’t remember exactly what I was going to write, but I feel that this piece needs to be moved out of the drafts folder and finally published. 

Similar to the start of the draft, the last couple of weeks have been filled with many untimely deaths. And a lot of those due to #cancer-a cause near and dear to my heart. #NatalieCole #DavidBowie #AlanRickman René Angélil and the many others not so famous who have succumbed to shortened lives only reminds us that we must LIVE our lives.

 
When people die, it is sad for us who are still living to grieve the loss of those we’ve lost. But I believe it is even more sad if we die not implementing the gift of life that God has given us.  

Whether it’s lending a helping hand when needed; comforting someone in pain; listening to a friend who needs to bounce some ideas; or just being present in the lives of those around us – we were created to live in community with others, not just for ourselves. 

As humans, we make choices every day:

• Wake up and browse #Facebook…or read a daily devotional?
• Ignore that person we recognize from high school (because we weren’t friends or didn’t hang in the same crowd)…or confidently call them by name (if we remember) and strike up a quality conversation?
• Complain about everything that’s gone wrong in our life…or be thankful for the blessings we’ve been given?
• Spend 30 minutes playing games on our phone before bed…or get 30 minutes of cardio in?
• Binge watch the latest Netflix series…or volunteer to read stories to kids a the local library (or another volunteer opportunity)?
• Look at the glass half empty…or is it really half full?

What we do during the hours we are awake says a lot about our character. Our values. Our passions. 

For the majority of us, we don’t know when we’ll be called home. We aren’t guaranteed a long time on this earth, so it’s not a very wise way to go through life putting off for tomorrow what we can do today. Each day we wake up, we’re given a gift. 

Let’s not waste our gifts! How great would it be if we were present and not so self-absorbed? What would the world look like if we put our phones down and actually took a good, hard look at the world around us? You’d be surprised how many opportunities come up in a day to be able to be a light for someone needing a little brightness. #bethelight #becomemore 

Rest in peace Kyle James Clark. You lived. And in your special way, you were a light to many.