“In the blink of an eye, everything can change. So forgive often and love with all your heart. You may never get that chance again.”
This quote is often attributed to anonymous wisdom but that does not make it any less true or poignant for my point here.
I do appreciate it’s focus on making love and forgiveness a priority over pride and grudges. As someone else pointed out, the opportunity to make amends or express affection can vanish instantly. And it brings home to roost, so quickly, the awareness of life’s fragility.
In reviewing a sermon by Carter Conlon, I appreciated how he pointed to this “blink of an eye” timing as often showing up through God’s intervention, prayer, or spiritual awakening work in our lives or those around us.
He pointed to Acts chapter two, a familiar portion of scripture, beginning at verse one to verse four. And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord and in one place. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
As he described it, all the rules for the people of God were being dictated by this dominant, godless, sneering power called Rome that had come in and conquered the Holy Land. You know, the thought must have been in people’s hearts, is there anything that can ever make a difference? And if difference ever does come, will it take a generation? Will it take five years? Will it take 10 years? Will it take 15 years?
He said he was sure that many, many thoughts were in many, many hearts. But they were told by Jesus Christ after he had been raised from the dead to go and gather in a certain place and wait there until they were given power from God to be the full expression of what God had determined their lives to be on the earth. The Bible says they were with one accord and in one place. I think every person in that room made the decision, I want my life to count for God and I want my life to count for good. I know that I can’t do this in my own strength.
But they had a promise from God that something was going to be given to them that was going to make a difference in the earth that they could not do in their own strength. They were no different than you and I are today. We’re living in a world that is being dominated by darkness. We’re living in a day when evil is being called good and good is being called evil.
But nevertheless, here we are calling out to Him to do what only He can do through each of our lives. They decided to take a stand. They decided to pray even though resistance against their forward motion was significant.
Acts says that suddenly, there came a sound from heaven. Not gradually, not over a period of 16 to 60 days, but suddenly, suddenly, God hears the cry. Suddenly, this rushing mighty wind, which was God himself coming in the form of the Holy Spirit into that room.
And the crowd stopped and looked and asked how’s it possible that these people are speaking our languages? Because they’re Galileans, they don’t know, they were never taught the languages that we know, but yet by the power of God, they’re communicating the great works of God to us clearly in our own tongues, in our own languages. And then they said, what must we do to have a relationship with God like that?
Conlon’s request is that God may grant us a moment like this in our nation today. May God give us a season like this, where you and I, as the people of God, and those that are listening, no matter your condition right now, would just start crying out to God and say, Lord, God Almighty, I want to live for you.
If you want a link to his sermon – here it is: carter-conlon–everything-can-change-in-a-heartbeat.pdf
Why is this on my mind? Recent events have pointed me here. I had talked to my sister who lives in another state 3-4 weeks ago about our move which required a drastic downsizing and lots of work at our age. Our brother left this earth a year ago and I am her only family left (along with my kids and grandkids).
As I reflect on our conversation, it was the usual – and add in some complaining about the hassle of moving, yet celebrating the great place we landed — just an ordinary visit. Light chit-chat, newsy type of conversation.
Something brought her to mind recently and it had been a while — I was bit surprised she had not called to see how the move was progressing. So, I gave her a call – had to leave a voice message. Thought I would try again in a few hours – another voice message. So I shot her a text also. The next day I sent an email and had 3-4 more calls to her along with leaving messages beginning to be concerned enough that I said if she didn’t respond soon, I would have to have the police do a wellness check.
Thankfully, the last time this happened, a few months ago, I did call in a wellness check and it turned out as the policeman was standing at her door delivering my concern, she tried to call me and realized she had accidentally blocked me on her phone. (yes, we are in the non-techy generation) The good news is that the neighbor was walking his dogs and walked over to see what was happening and my sister included me in the conversation as we laughed at our inept tech ability. He shared his phone number with me saying anytime I needed, just call him and he can connect with my sister.
So, here I am again – dancing between a concerned worry at her non-responsiveness and not wanting to embarrass her with another police visit. I thankfully had stored his phone number and by the end of the 2nd day of no response, I called the neighbor. He did a check around the house and knocking on the door, etc. with no response. And it was dark and so was her house but her car was in the garage. We agreed I would call in a wellness check and he would stay in place there.
I did that. I called the neighbor back to monitor next steps. The Emergency ambulance arrived first and they said they were not allowed to break down the door –police luckily came quickly but they wanted to try everything but breaking down the door first – even said they needed to hear someone calling out before they would do that. We finally convinced them of the urgency (sure enough, I learned they were often asked to pay for entry damages so they were cautious). Over the phone via the neighbor’s relay of my message, I said they had my permission to break down the door – just do it. They did their best to minimize the damage, but the long story short is that they found her on the floor.
We anxiously waited as the neighbor had to stay outside but we believed the long delay meant they were working on her. And that was true. She finally was removed by stretcher and taken to ICU. Everyone was honestly very cooperative and helpful. But the emergency of getting to her hit me immediately. A 13 hour drive was not a good plan so my daughter-in-law booked tickets for the 2 of us for the next day (it was midnight by this time).
The next 5 days were a whirlwind of activity and the good news is that as I left her yesterday in the hospital, she was speaking pretty well. But there will be lots of rehab and we don’t know the full extent of the future – if she will be able to live independently again or will need to be moved to a facility near me.
Now I am reflecting as I think about that phrase “in a heartbeat” how things can change. And we truly don’t pay enough attention to the fragility of our lives here on earth.
Lessons? That’s what I want to share with you.
- We couldn’t get into her phone (for necessary contacts) because we didn’t know the password.
- We couldn’t get in her house (other than through the broken door and dismantling where they had secured the place they broke in) – no one had a key or knew the garage code
- She was not coherent or clear thinking for the next 4+ days so we weren’t sure what meds she was taking (there were many pill bottles but not clear which were current or even were ones she took)
- I knew she had surgeries (I was present for them) but we didn’t know if the metal used in them was compatible with an MRI or not – so they could not do an MRI
- As I scoured her office papers, I happened upon a timeline of her medical history (that was good and helped the docs)
- She had told me she had a Durable Power of Attorney and would send it to me – but she never did. After we got in to her files, we found one. It was going to be important – especially as it appeared I would need to pay bills and handle her house issues at least for a while. But we couldn’t be sure it was her last one (it was dated 11 years ago).
- We found her wallet, thankfully, so we could get her medical insurance cards to the hospital. As time has passed we needed to find all her insurance coverage (like Long Term Medical Insurance coverage) as we are investigating rehabilitation and facilities post-hospital stay. We found it but needed to know more how to work with it which means we needed to know if she had a broker or person who could explain and guide us. (turned out we learned a lot from the rehab places as we later toured them)
- Also found her checkbook and some bank statements, so we knew which bank to go to and get their help. Thankfully, I was the Power of Attorney so the bank was extremely helpful in opening up the financial part we needed.
- I haven’t even tried her computer (I know she isn’t techy) but I don’t have her password(s) or access info
- She had named a friend who was close with her and lived nearby at the time as the Medical Power of Attorney. Unfortunately, as I called and talked to the friend, she said she had moved hours away and had a very ill husband and really felt I would be much better at making the medical decisions (I was 2nd in line). Yes, the Medical power document was 11 years old. So I had to write out all the info on this person and give her phone number and recite the fact that she declined to serve. Probably will need a proper renunciation document at some point signed by her.
- I truly didn’t know in the first days if she was going to survive or not, but the turnaround has been quick enough that I have not gone looking for burial or funeral instructions – nor have we run into them.
OKAY! I know you “get it”. In an instant, my world flipped upside down (as many spouses and loved ones have experienced) and my sister was totally unable to participate in any way to provide the information we needed. Her world was crashing.
You can walk down each bullet point and know what you should do to be prepared for that situation in your life. But will you?
My biggest lesson is looking at my own FOREVER account and shaking my finger at myself that I don’t have all my documentation and up-to-date information neatly tucked in easy to access format for my “account managers” so they could skip the panic and craziness (and damage). That is where it belongs.
If you aren’t familiar with FOREVER permanent digital storage then you need to know: for less than $100, I can set you up with digital storage for the above type of documents and information which is paid for up front, will be guaranteed available to you and your family after you for 100+ years, and which is set up for you to pick one or more people to serve as Account Managers who can access and share the info you know they will need when they need it. Across all devices, no subscription or continuing costs, and actually if you forget to set up Account Managers or they are not available, FOREVER will search for family members who can be verified to step in to manage as you have directed and set it up for future folks.
Yes, Candy is severely chastised at this point at her lack of completing this task with her own important documents and info — and promises to set up a brief workshop to guide us all in “COMPLETING” this task.
P.S. Feel free to reply to this email and let me know if you have done this already (or not) and what you need in order to help get you “prepared” as we know we should be.
