Time Marches On

Know What Is Important

Psalm 90: 10,12

Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow; indeed, they pass quickly, and we fly away….Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.

A few days ago, I received a letter from my medical school alma mater, Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, now known as A.T. Still University (ATSU). The college, which was the original school of osteopathic medicine, celebrates the profession every October. All the alumni are invited back to see the campus updates and as a class reunion (and as a fundraiser). The website promotes the activities this way:

Founder’s Day alumni reunion activities will provide you with opportunities to reunite with your classmates, reconnect with faculty, and rekindle relationships with those who played a significant role in your professional and personal journey.

The first sentence of the letter grabbed me by the throat:

         Your 40-year class reunion is approaching....

Forty years.

Whew.

I stood in my kitchen reading and rereading that sentence, both a little stunned and a lot nostalgic. I still clearly remember events, conversations, and activities during my med school days. I remember the three Talent Shows our class hosted, the housing program for students who came to the remote campus for their admission interview that I set up (which is still in use), studying long hours for the exams, attending the endless classes, reading the textbooks for countless hours, our graduation party bash, and on and on.

Then I thought about the many things that have transpired in the last four decades: being the ER Director of a level II trauma center, owning a 32-foot offshore racing boat when I lived in Port Clinton, marrying Kevin in 2004, all the world travel we did, his passing in 2014, getting Teegan in 2016, making the vaccine issue the cornerstone of my life/career, opening my holistic medical clinic in 1996 TIMC, opening two ECP Centers, all things COVID, the stroke, the recovery, and on and on.

Life really does fly by, and everything that happens is truly a blink and a blur.

Having six decades under my belt, I certainly have more years behind me than ahead of me. Age gives one an interesting vantage point to view one’s life, from early on until now...and for anticipating the years that remain.

I tried to put an Instagram post here, but Substack doesn’t allow those URLs. It was a message from Melissa Grainger - a random message someone sent me. I don’t know her, but I have listened to her clear message dozens of times (paraphrased):

Have you ever thought about this? One hundred years from now, in 2124, we will all be dead and buried, along with our friends and family. Strangers will live in our homes, which we worked so hard to build and care for. Some else will own everything we own today. Most of our possessions will be sold, given away, or put in the trash. Our descendants won’t know who we are, nor will they remember us. After all, how many of us know who our grandfather’s grandfather was? We’ll be remembered for a few more years, and then we’ll just be a picture on someone’s wall. A few more years after that, our life history, photos, and deeds will disappear into history’s oblivion. We won’t even be memories.

If we paused to think about this, perhaps we would realize how pointless it is to worry about 95% of the things that take up our time during the day. Then perhaps we would do things differently. Perhaps we’ll feel more free to enjoy our lives. If it’s not going to matter in 5 years, it’s probably not worth more than 5 minutes of time to worry about it.

While writing this, I have been listening to the Rescue the Republic event happening today in Washington, DC, online. There appear to be about 700 people at the live event, but more than 100,000 are watching the live stream on X.com. The speakers are fun, funny, entertaining, sobering, inspiring, and hopeful. But no matter how much Rah Rah occurs at any gathering, putting Jesus at the center of the efforts is the only hope we have for the future of our country.

Have you invited Him into your heart? Do you believe and trust Him, even when you don’t hear Him talk to you, it feels like He’s ignoring you, or when things are not going very well in your life? No matter what you have done or haven’t done, it’s really about the moment. What you have, where you’ve been, who you know, and even your friends and family are all part of a very short-term reality compared to knowing where you will spend the thousands of years to come.

Today’s Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for the courage of those attending the event in DC to show unity in the effort to restore America and recapture our nation from the Marxist/socialist/communist regime that wants Your nation destroyed. Please come into the center of our efforts. As the days of our lives march on, keep us focused on what is important: our relationship with You.