We live!

This post is part two of last weeks post "What now?" These were posted leading up to the 10 year death anniversary.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1 NIV

I could hear our daughter Aly asking Dave questions. She is as calm as can be in emergencies. It’s crazy. My son also did something. He came over as we were moving Dave. He said, “Uncle Dave hurt”. I was telling him that Dave would be okay even though it did not look like he would be. Then he reached down and laid his hands gently on Dave’s head. He just held him. Korbin exudes peace like no one. It looked like a laying on of hands. It was a powerful thing to see. Dave took his first breath with my kids looking him in the eye.

What I remember oddly is all of the thoughts that went through my mind. It is amazing how the human mind works. I remember the first few days after Jordyn died in still pictures. I can replay them at will. Sometimes I am powerless to stop them. It’s ironic that our own brain can become our worst enemy.

I have never seen Dave look frail until that day. I thought about him being a decorated veteran of combat. He has medals to prove he did it with honor, this wasn’t honorable. I thought about how many times I had seen my brother rise up if he thought someone he loved was hurting. He looked just like my dad. I also remember being glad I did not have to give him CPR breaths. There is a line.

I have thought all day that life is more important than death. Death is going to find all of us eventually. But will life? It can if we let it. The doctor told me that my compressions were probably ineffective because I did not break any ribs. He said Dave probably had trauma induced apnea. He would have come back on his own. I don’t care. It made me feel better to do something.

Do you think God is like the doctor? We can have trauma induced spiritual apnea. Life happens, we panic or worse, feel nothing. We try to do a bunch of earthly compressions to revive our spiritual selves. Ineffective. God is neither worried nor hurried.

Do the people in my life have to die to know how I feel about them? Why not try telling the living how important they are? How important they are to God.

Challenge: Milestones are unavoidable. They can be a positive. But let’s not make idols out of the things they mark. Our worship belongs solely to God.