I was chatting with a friend today. She had just flown home from a missions trip and found out once she landed that the flight *literally* right before hers had crashed only six minutes after takeoff - and every person on that first flight had been killed. It's one of those experiences that makes you realize how close we walk to death every single day.
We only get one lifetime on this spinning ball of earth. One lifetime with those we love. One lifetime with those who have never felt love. One lifetime of laughter and tears and holding hands and sharing stories. One lifetime of knowing and being known and living broken and holding one another up in the midst of heart-splitting pain. One lifetime of truth-telling and life-speaking and dream-chasing. One lifetime to fight for what is right and protect what is good and spend ourselves in rescuing one another from the clutches of the enemy. Whether our lifetime is long or short, we only get our one.
I'm in a season of goodbyes right now. I'm transitioning away from a position in ministry that I love with a group of students that I am crazy about at a campus that has burrowed down deep into a special little spot in my heart. And the clock keeps ticking off the seconds that are stealing away the last of my precious moments with them all. My heart is raw with the ache of it, and the tears come often.
I didn't want to leave.
And I don't want to be forgotten.
But the reality is that most of us will, one day, be completely forgotten. How many generations will it take for my own children's children's children to forget even my name?
But for vanity's sake, I am so thankful that my children will never forget my name. Like, never. Ever. Nor will my husband. And I have a few friends who are just stuck with me. I've told them that it doesn't matter where I move or where they move, they're stuck with me now. No matter what the future brings, we're just going to keep being friends - because I've decided I can't do life without them. They won't ever be able to forget my name (even if they wanted to). And you know what? Maybe there are even a couple others - maybe - who I've made some small imprint in their lives and somehow their lives will be forever altered, even if just slightly. Maybe some of them won't forget my name either.
And that's the thing, isn't it? We only get one.lifetime.each. But each of our lifetimes is made up of a million moments.
A lifetime of moments.
And each moment has the potential to make a difference. Each moment carries the potential to impact another - to touch a heart, to share hope, to ask forgiveness, to speak light into darkness, to breath life into a dream, to break down a wall, to alter the trajectory of the life of another.
We each get only one lifetime, but it is a lifetime of moments. And each moment is precious. Each moment is holy. Each moment has the potential to leave an imprint in someone's life that they will never forget.
I am asking myself: How am I using the last of my precious moments in this place and with these people? Am I running from the ache of goodbye and the pain of being replaceable? Or am I seizing the last of these holy moments and speaking truth and life and beauty into the hearts of these precious souls?
Even with tears running down my cheeks, I will not waste a single one.
