Lessons from Tragedy

On Friday June 1, there was a terrible accident in my hometown... two coaches lost, several players injured...the story has been all over the news.  It hit me hard as I knew one of the coaches, Zane Harvey.  Sadly I didn't know him that well but what I did know I always admired.  He went to my home church and though he was quiet he always seemed like a rock... solid, sturdy, stable.  And with a real faith, the kind that is lived out day by day, moment by moment, decision by decision.  An intelligent, caring, faithful person.

From what I've read, what other people have said about him, I can tell my opinions of him were not wrong, he was all of those things.  And it's made me think a lot about what people might say of me...what kind of life am I leading?  What kind of legacy will I leave behind?  Am I faithful?

The suddenness of the accident is overwhelming.  Zane was my age, and this matters because I have always been the person who thinks I have plenty of time to do this or that.  I'll get around to it...someday.  Where I am is fine for now because things will change for the better ... someday.  And in some ways that attitude is good, but in other ways it can be a cop-out, a reason not to seize every moment, every opportunity.  And I don't want to live that way.

This isn't a sudden realization exactly but in thinking about Zane's life I am spurred to action.  I want to be a faithful follower of Christ and I don't want to be limited by my circumstances. Sometimes I feel that as a single woman I am somehow less able to serve Christ because I am not a wife and mother.  That calling is a good one, a high and holy calling... however... Paul noted that even good things can be a distraction to our focus on our Lord if we let them be (1 Cor. 7:32-35).  Paul extolled the virtue of being single because it allows for single-minded devotion to Christ, and I saw Zane exemplify that in his life.  As a single man he was able to give unselfishly and untiringly to his ministries and service - teaching, coaching, FCA, church. He was devoted.

And so I am inspired by a life cut too short from my viewpoint here on earth.  I realize anew that we have no idea when the Lord will choose to take us home.  I could have one more minute or fifty more years but it doesn't matter, I can choose to make the most of every moment I have left.