He noted how 6 years of residency flew by until he was sick. His days were long and he didn't have time to notice how exhausted he was while he was immensely focused on his patients.
Then, spending more time at home to rest, the sense of time is changed. Time is meaningless when your entire day is spent making it to one doctor's appointment or getting the simplest of chores completed. The things of his past were no longer important to him. While he was between the last remission and the next relapse, his idea of time was just to be.
In church today, our priest brought up this man's story as he explained how we become so engrossed in our days we do not take into consideration we must look at ourselves in a certain way when our time has run out.
When we introduce ourselves to strangers, we break the ice by talking about what we do. We are our occupation whether we are students, professionals, stay at home parents. We focus on what we do and how we are identified by our means of bringing home a paycheck or supporting our families.
But, when we are before God right after our death, how do we describe ourselves to God? The worldly vocabulary of work and status are worthless and trivial.
God wants to know if we were devoted to him and if we helped bring peace of mind and comfort to others in tribute to him.
But we must find balance in the world because this is where we are for now. We can use the world's resources to accomplish wonderful things for God.
In our quest to live-like-vacation, we are not looking to be absent from the world, but we want to have some type of simplified life in order to accomplish things that have a higher ideal.
We are called to follow a purpose in life. The principles that help us live like vacation give us the perspective and ability to stay focused on that purpose.
How have you enhanced or modified your perspective in your world?
How has your purposed been transformed during your life?
Read Dr. Kalanithi's essay: Before I Go
No comments:
Post a Comment