As I write this right now, tomorrow morning is the memorial service for my Mom who passed away recently. Mom’s passing, Kathy’s recent root canal, and another very serious health problem in my family has me thinking about suffering. Below you’ll find a repost of what happened to my dear Mom. In our next post, I want to share some thoughts about suffering and unjust suffering in particular. I pray our Lord uses these words to connect you more intimately with Him.

God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

It’s fifteen minutes after midnight at the time of this writing. Just a short while ago I made it home after a five hour drive from Ashland, Oregon. I was there because Monday night, I received a phone call from Officer Montoya of the Ashland Police Department informing me that someone I love died –and I didn’t expect it. That news and the subsequent trip down to her apartment to put her affairs in order reminded me:

Life is so much more fragile than we realize.

This person I love had no disease in her body. She took no medications. I spoke with her on the phone four days before that conversation with Officer Montoya. She sounded great. There was nothing to indicate she would die just a few days later.

“Life is a misery, death an uncertainty. Suppose it steals suddenly upon me, in what state shall I leave this world? When can I learn what I have here neglected to learn? Or is it true that death will cut off and put an end to all care and all feeling? This is something to be inquired into.

“But no, this cannot be true. It is not for nothing, it is not meaningless that all over the world is displayed the high and towering authority of the Christian faith.

“Such great and wonderful things would never have been done for us by God, if the life of the soul were to end with the death of the body. Why then do I delay? Why do I not abandon my hopes of this world and devote myself entirely to the search for God and for the happy life?”

― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Memento mori.

“Father please help us to remember: our time is short.

“In Jesus’ name.

“Amen.”

(Lord willing, I’ll share more in our next post.)