Doing Well, Doing Good

[Billy Britt]

The Reverend Billy Graham was once asked what was the most amazing thing he had learned about life. His answer, “It’s brevity.”
Another holiday season almost gone, only a few days stand between us and a New Year. Some years hurl change at us with such startling speed that we breath a sigh of relief when they reach a close. Others are merely the slow tick, tick, ticking of time passing, uneventful, unremarkable.
One morning, while reheating a cup of coffee in the microwave, I watched the seconds disappear in their countdown to zero. I was shocked to witness in real-time the passing of 30 seconds of my life. Half a minute of my life was gone and all I had accomplished was to warm a cup of coffee.
Much of life is like that, mundane things chewing away tiny bits of this wonderful gift of life. Of course, we spend much of our life feeding the needs of the body, eating and sleeping consuming great chunks of our time. The greater portion of the rest is given over to the jobs that enable us to eat and sleep with some degree of comfort. What precious little is left is ours to feed our souls, whether time with the ones we love, worship, volunteerism or sport. In other words, it is those pursuits that we find to enrich us beyond our physical necessities.
It is incredible to realize how much is accomplished in these small hours that are left of our time. Churches are built, the poor are fed, even puppies are trained and a good, in many forms, is achieved.
If we are lucky, or as some would say blessed, we will see in our lifetime the fruit of these labors, the completions of things we deem bigger than ourselves. But sadly, this is hardly ever the case; we usually never see the end of our work.
There is a story about a king who summoned to the throne room the best of his wise counselors. “We have a big problem before us, a mission so great that it requires our attention immediately,” he said. The wise ones looked at the project the king had laid before them and said. “Oh, King, we don’t have the tools, the manpower, the money or the many things this project demands.” The king looked down upon them with scorn and said, “I asked you to start the task not to finish it.”
So, I ask myself, as well as you my reader, what will be the thing that we give ourselves to this year?
Knowing that we have only so much time, what is worthy of those few minutes we have to enrich our souls by doing good? As Reverend Graham’s words so cautiously remind us, life is short.

[Roger D. Hunt]

Every moment is a treasure...the life is to be loved...and people are to loved...this is the treasure...and God is to be praised. I love you Billy...keep the torch lite.

[Cheryl (Dahl) Burke]

Ahh...life is short. And it should be enjoyed. It is for loving and for being loved. I think that is the long and the short of it.