**CROSS POST** If the Lord's Willing...

FROM MY OTHER BLOG

 Yesterday I shared something with the ladies in our weekly text thread. A verse came to mind when I was thinking about a habit of my later mother that I've taken up.

One of the things that everyone who knew my mother is a saying she had whenever she was making plans: "If the good Lord's willing to let me live and nothing happen."

Even though I had read the Bible, I didn't realize that my mother got that saying from Scripture:

"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”

 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”  (James 4:13–15) {my underline}

I guess with age I appreciate that a lot more than I ever did before. This is the rest of the text I shared:

Read the passage & think about it. Gabby (our niece) had just pulled in to work & on the phone with her brother. He was going to be visiting her soon. She died about a half hour later. A lady I worked with for years went home with a headache one day. Told everyone she'd see them "tomorrow". She died of a brain stem stroke - or whatever the term is.

I want to remember how easy it is to die. I don't want to be in the middle or a fight or about to spread nasty gossip - and drop dead. I don't want to have forgotten to thank God for my blessings on the day I die. I don't want to forget to tell the people I love that I love them. 

You probably have stories of your own about people you know - someone in their mid-thirties like out Gabs. Or a co-worker in her 40's and newly engaged to be married in a few months. 

I also think about James 4:14 - 

 "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."

Think hard about that. You don't have to be "old" or sick or living a "high risk" lifestyle. You can live in the nicest, safest town and only know that kindest people. You can have money for the best food and healthcare. None of it matters to Death.

I have known people who talked about living fast and sowing all their oats before settling down. As of Death respects their planned timeline. 

I know many people who are kind and sweet and generous - but they are not saved. Death is going to come for them one day.

Anyway, I just thought I would share with this blog one of the weekly messages from a text thread. I hope that this touches someone and makes them take a moment to think. Don't focus on if I am right or wrong. Just ask yourself if you will be ready for Death when it comes.

The way I think of Death now is different. I see my life as a little flicker of light and Death as that probably unexpected breath. I am here and then I am not.

I have to remind myself all the time of this. To be ready. I don't want to have any meanness in my heart, nasty gossip on my mind, or curse words coming from my mouth. When Death comes, I hope I will be sleep! If I am awake, I hope I will have remembered to say all my "I love you" messages.

Peace

--Free