Wasted Time

Your Squad should remain your Squad no matter what. 

So, on the first day of treatment we had a little minor scare. E ran a fever. Fever, infection, and bacteria are the most harmful, dangerous things right now. Her nurse checked three times. The charge nurse came in. The floor doctor came in. They called her managing doctor at the clinic. Ordered cultures of her port and sent the serious antibiotics in here. Fever came down. All was well. The fever? 100.1. All of that for two little degrees.

What yesterday would have been no big whoop, today was a big, fat, hairy situation. It made every other really high fever she has run in the past look ridiculous. 

Sometimes life is like that. Things you thought were terrible become nothing in light of the next surprise. Maybe a friendship or a relationship that instantly changes because of circumstances. Or a life change like a divorce or death or loss of a job. 

Just recently...

• My husband resigned from full-time pastorate after 20 years in the pulpit. This was traumatic, but surprisingly, the main emotion my kids felt was relieved. (That ought to tell you everything you need to know about what pastoring does to your family.) 
• We moved into a new home. (After ten years in the previous one, that required two dumpsters.) 
• We left our church family. (People who have helped raise my kids.) 
• I lost people in that process that I thought were heart friends. (They weren't.) 
• I also gained people I didn't recognize yet were heart friends. (They were all along.)
• People were mean to my children and myself because of things out of our control.
• My children and their faith were damaged in the process by people who claimed Christ with their mouths but didn't act like it when the push came. (See the first bullet point.)
• Our bonus child got married. (This alone would have been enough stress for one year.) 
• Our twins started their senior year. (I can't even.)

Our lives had literally the biggest upheaval ever all over the course of three months. 

Resolving your interpersonal relationships is perhaps
the most important thing in a life well lived.

And at the end of the three months, one of the twins was diagnosed with cancer. 

I can assure you that all of those other things that happened--things I thought were devastating and overwhelming and scary--They weren't anything. Nothing. No big whoop. They were cake. Because this right here is a big, fat, hairy situation, and all other things pale in the light of my sick baby girl. 

You prioritize rather quickly when that happens.
Job? temporal.
Church? malleable. fallible.
Career? bah. change it.
People? damaged, sinful, corruptible. 

Your people will love you no matter what
if they are really your people. 

It's how I've been able to forgive some people who have wronged us who I don't particularly feel like forgiving. It's ridiculousness. I know the secret of what is important and what is chaff.  I know what is kingdom work and what is selfish gain. I know what matters. And this circumstance has emboldened me to tell it, because there isn't a better time and there might not be a better opportunity. 

What matters is this one thing--how you resolve your personal relationships, starting with Christ; second, with family and friends; third, with the world around you.

Fun Bus be rollin'. 

I encourage each person who reads this--get your personal life in order.
Spend time with people you love.
Make room in your life for friends.
Look outward more than inward.
Forgive even when you don't feel like it.
And above all, make each day count.
There isn't any time to waste on ridiculousness. Not any time at all.