by Greg

Realistic Expectations

It’s been a rough day.

It’s been a rough season. Not sure exactly how long that extends, but right now it feels almost like it’s never been any different than the way it is now. The main reason I know that is not true is this deep yearning in me for a return to something of “the way it used to be”.

Right now it feels like every single person I know has let me down. I really think every one. Whether it’s something they did to me (or failed to do), or some way I messed up and have not been allowed to restore the relationship… I’m pretty tired of most everybody right now.

So, what is it? I am ordinarily one of the more gracious, friendly, accepting, forgiving people you could ever know. Why do I have no allowance for people’s failings today?

One reason is the sheer volume of the troubles I am currently enduring. They are too many to list here. Maybe someday. Likely just in part. But, not now. Suffice it to say, the cumulative weight is approaching unbearable.

Now, don’t think I am naive. I know of several friends and some close family that I would not want to trade places with right now. (And many more complete strangers of whom I could say the same thing.)

But I don’t know if it’s possible to bear more.

So I know that’s a factor. But is that it? It’s just a bad time? A bad day?

Or is it something else?

I’ve been in a dark place all day, thinking about not only the things done to me (or, as I said, failed to be done) and even worse, I’ve been projecting into the future potential outcomes of these failures and actions. I find that I can get even more down, if that were possible, when I dwell on these things.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Yes, I know. I know.

Why do I cling to these unrealistic expectations? Not that I think everyone will always be perfect. I do not. But perhaps if it wasn’t nearly every part of my life crumbling at once?

To be fair, though of course they have failed me many times (and will again) I have enjoyed the spirit of my family today. (Which is odd, and cool, in that some of them are the source of other griefs I am bearing today…) I am super grateful for that.

We are all broken. Every one of us. You, your friends, your family, and me. That means we’ll all disappoint each other, regularly. But the part I’m struggling with today is that I’m not seeing the understanding of that. I’m not seeing grace. (In some cases, grace directed inward.) I think that might be the heaviest part of my burden.

What can I do, but press on? I am responsible for my actions and choices. No one else. I can be hurt by others, but I can’t make them fix it, or want to fix it.

I do wish I could sometimes. But somehow, in his wisdom, God decided it was best to give us the full ability to choose, good or bad. He’s there in both cases, always adding his good.

I also know that what I am feeling (and writing) can not be true. Some of you out there reading this (if you know me, and almost definitely if you do not know me) have in fact not let me down. Thanks. 😉 And I do know that life is an ebb and flow of good and bad. I’m just definitely in the ebb of good and the flow if bad. Perhaps that means a reverse of that is in my future?

Who knows? We do not. Definitely do not. We have today, right now, and that is all we have. Thankfully, I know that my Father is here with me through all of it, and that he will not disappoint me. (Though it could seem that way if I beloved more in my unrealistic expectations than I do in him.)

For you are all children[m] of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. […] But when the right time came, God sent his Son […] to buy freedom for us […] so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.”

(selections from Galatians… a book that has encouraged me lately…)

Last one… “It’s always darkest before dawn.”

Must be just about daybreak.

by Greg

Thankful

There are days that it’s incredibly hard to see the good side. Where you’re so completely overwhelmed by the crushing weight of sadness, or failure, or just plain pain that you can’t see a way out of and seems it will never end.

For whatever reason, we’ve had more than our share of those around here lately.

But last night as I was putting the four youngest kids in bed, for some reason I decided to start (quite randomly) naming things that I was thankful for. “Thank you for Mom… and for (insert sibling name here)…” was how I began. Then I began just literally saying any word that came to mind. Some things I saw around their room, or then any related item or word. It quickly exploded into a fun game of who can think of the most random thing to be thankful for!

And the neat thing was, it worked.

The kids were not that excited to go to bed last night, but that little exercise lightened their hearts, and perhaps enlightened mine.

I found it was easy to rattle off all sorts of “good” things that we can be thankful for. Stars, trees, the sun, the moon, Grandmas & Grandpas, other friends we love, books, paper, paint, carpet, air conditioning, and so on. So I began intentionally thinking of “bad” things. (Or at least, weird things to be thankful for.)

“Thank you for toilets. For bottoms. For toilet paper.” Emma (our three-year old) picked right up on that, “Thank you for pee pee… AND poo poo!” And then I actually made myself say, “Thank you for HOT days.” (Reasoning in my mind that, though I loathe and detest the heat, I do love a good, juicy tomato … and they rather enjoy hot days.)

This seemed to work for all of the kiddos from the youngest (just about 2) who would grunt his approval with a little, “mmm hmm” after every word or phrase I’d say, to the room full of his three sisters all spitting out random words as fast as they were able to fit them in. It really was incredible!

It made me think of a book that Jen asked me to read, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Jen reads her blog, and so decided to purchase her book, and was challenged (in a good way) to try to change her perspective on life, as Ann has tried to do. It’s kind of a “glass half-full vs glass half-empty” idea, but a bit different. Her challenge was just to write down 1,000 things that you are thankful for. A few each day.

I think we may have hit about 400 last night alone! 🙂

There are so many things that we can be thankful for. It really just depends on your perspective. If you can come at life looking for goodness, you’ll often (usually) find it. If you’re expecting bad, you’ll usually end up there.

So maybe try it tonight. Putting kids to bed… after they are in bed… on your way home from work… just let you brain bounce from one thing to the next and speak it out, “Thank you for _____.” Not just things that God directly gave us, necessarily, but think about the things that are part of our everyday lives, and how they help us. We really do take much of life “for granted”, as they say. Doing so lifted my spirits last night, and four other tiny spirits.

Perhaps it can lift yours, tonight, too.

by Greg

A Buffalo Team With Money?

Sabres defenseman, Christian EhrhoffI’ve been a fan of Buffalo sports teams for almost 25 years now. That’s a good long time. Many players, many coaches, many GMs, and—at least for the Sabres—a few different owners. (I’m thinking right now that maybe the Bills could use a different owner…)

Near the mid-way point of last year, the Sabres were purchased by a guy who has made his fortune in the business world, who also happens to be a Sabres’ fan. Terry Pegula sat in the stands as a season ticket holder for a couple decades, watching his favorite team do well, but never well enough to bring home the Stanley Cup. When the Sabres were up for sale, he did what probably most every avid fan would love to do … he bought his favorite team.

The crazy thing is, though he is certainly not wanting to lose money from the business side of his new sports franchise, as a fan of this team (and hockey in general) and as a man with apparently abundant supplies of cash, he doesn’t only want to make the Sabres competitive. He has repeatedly stated that his only goal is to win a Stanley Cup in Buffalo. Many Stanley Cups.

As soon as he came to town, his infectious enthusiasm really did seem to spur the Sabres to play much better hockey. They finished the season on a strong run to end up in 7th place in the Eastern Conference, and played almost well enough to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers, who were a powerhouse in 2010-2011. The talk from the team and all over the region (among fans, media… everyone!) was that this guy might just have the magic touch. (And… the cash to back that up!)

Pegula has been personally visiting the players that the team is targeting to bolster their roster. That is clearly important to him. The players, the management, and nearly everyone in the organization is impressed by how personally involved (and involved passionately) he has been. It could be a reason that the Sabres have signed a couple players already, even before free agency starts at noon today.

The Sabres have already shown a commitment to improving their ‘D’. Trading a couple young guys (including defenseman Chris Butler, whom I was hoping they’d somehow move…) to the Calgary Flames for D Robyn Regher, a tough, veteran D-man. (They also got former Sabre forward, Ales Kotalik in the deal, but not sure where they are going with that.) And just yesterday, the Sabres signed soon-to-be free agent D Christian Ehrhoff (likely one of the top free agent defensemen) to a multi-year deal after acquiring his negotiating rights from the Islanders (who were apparently unsuccessful in their attempt to sign him).

The Sabres—at Pegula’s direction—are on the move.

And I don’t think they are done.

They have been signing a few players that are currently on the roster. After signing Regher and Ehrhoff, they also traded D Steve Montador to Chicago for a conditional draft pick. And then today at noon, free agency begins.

The name everyone is throwing around is Brad Richards. If the Sabres want him, I would expect that they will be a player in the quest to acquire him. (How strange is it, Buffalo fans, to have an owner that has money and wants to spend it!?) It’s conceivable the Sabres would pursue him as they really don’t have a #1 center (even though Derek Roy had a very productive season last year, despite missing about half of it due to injury) and they also lack “star power”, which this veteran forward would bring.

There still is a salary cap, but expect the Sabres, with their new deep-pocketed and fairly aggressive ownership to pursue the best available players. It wouldn’t surprise me if they make another trade or two here this offseason as well.

Hopes are high here in the Buffalo sports region. The Sabres have not been as frustrating as the Bills have been recently, but there has perhaps not been as much hope as there seems to be now. And with apparently good reason. Regher and Ehrhoff make the Sabres better. And the team is not done.

When the clock strikes noon today, the Sabres will be looking to further increase their chances of bringing home the Cup. That is, of course, everyone’s goal. But right now, it looks like more of a real possibility for Buffalo than it ever has.

Now if only Terry could buy the Bills…

by Greg

Public Dormancy

This site has been almost completely dormant for quite some time now. There are many factors. Some of which may come out in future postings here, others that will not be shared publicly.

Suffice it to say there has been plenty of thinking, learning, growing going on during this period of public dormancy. I’ve been reading a lot more, as I have said on these pages before, and there has been much focus on figuring out who we are. Individually, and as a family. Not only does that take time, it takes plenty of energy as well. That certainly has limited my abilities to share all that I am learning and pondering on these pages. I have discovered over the past six to eight months that I do not have limitless energy.

(There have been those over the years—myself included—who entertained the possibility that this was indeed the case…)

There are so many stories to tell. God is good, and continues to be so to our family. I love seeing him through the tough stuff. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. Not just words. Truth. When we face trials, we first learn more about ourselves and more about life and, hopefully, gain wisdom along the way. But also, we’ve discovered that there is actually more real life to be found in the harder things of life. The “trials”, you might say. Somehow, going through those things with your closest loved ones, and any of those whom God has placed in your life for that season—somehow that deepens the bonds of relationship unlike the good moments that are also shared.

(Thankfully, the good moments become great memories, which also are the jewels of great friendships.)

I am learning to really find peace and strength and rest in every new morning God gives me. Actually, in every moment. When the pressures and stresses of life build up, cumulatively piling on the weight of every decision that has to be made… there is peace in knowing that God is right there with me, that we are going through this together. Trusting his goodness brings a deep peace that is truly beyond understanding. (There’s a neat song that someone once wrote on that subject using the verses in Philippians 4… check it out.) 😉

I know for a fact that it has been a very tough year for several of our close friends. Life is not always (as they say) “sunshine and lollipops”. Are you in a difficult season right now? Would you say you are “facing trials of many kinds”? I hope you can find the peace that our Father promises us. It is ours to have… but it’s definitely not always easy to “find”.

James says:

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

And, don’t forget, Jesus says:

Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.

Life is full of chances to trust him. I think that’s one thing that we in the Campbell house are listening to and learning to live in these days. Even though it seems so backwards, I hope you are finding lots of ways that you need to trust him, to rely on him as well. What seems so hard, often produces such great things.

Consider it pure joy.

by Greg

Recommended: Netflix

Sign up for Netflix today!OK, unless you really don’t pay attention to … well, anything… then you’ve likely heard of Netflix. 🙂 And, since you’re reading this online, it’s likely that you already know that if you are a Netflix subscriber you can stream much of their catalog of movies and TV shows via your computer (unlimited streaming for as little as $7.99/month now). (Do you also know that there are many other devices that you can use to do this, like the Wii, XBox, AppleTV, many TVs, Tivo, goodness.. there are literally dozens!)

(It also works great on an iPhone/iPad!)

Well GregsHead.net is a Netflix user, fan, and also affiliate. (That means, they will give us a “commission” for any referrals.) And today they sent out another email with a special link in it for that purpose. (This link … right … here.) asking affiliates to spread the word again, which I am dutifully responding to.

Really, it’s not a very large commission … that’s just a bonus. The reason I’m taking the time to post it here is that is is an excellent service. If you like TV, movies, documentaries, etc… for only $7.99/mo they have thousands and thousands available for streaming. For a few dollars more you have access to their DVDs as well, mailed to your house. We’ve used it for years, and they just keep getting better. (As a tech enthusiast, I appreciate the hard work they’ve put into getting their service to work so well on so many platforms. Netflix on the Wii is super easy to use. It’s fantastic.)

We also love the queue. Every week (on Tuesdays) there’s a list of all the new content available for streaming. I quickly peruse that and add items of interest to our queue. Then later, from any device we choose, we can pull up that queue and start watching. (And, it remembers where you left off, if you don’t have time to watch the full movie or episode. That is often very helpful, too!)

So, if you’ve not tried it yet, they offer a one-month free trial. Give it a try today. We highly recommend.

Note: I was not paid to write this… but I will be “paid” if you click the links and sign up today. 🙂

by Greg

Will You Let Me Love You?

Sometimes babies do dumb things. OK, a lot of the time. But usually (really almost always) they are really cute doing them, so, you tend to pretty easily forgive. (That and, they’re all fairly new on the job, so, you cut them some slack.)

Well, today, Emma (who is 2, almost 3) decided she would live up to that.

After her baby brother’s nap (he is 1), she joined him in his crib for a little bouncy fun. Well, the bouncing turned stale I guess, and she thought it would be fun to involve the curtains in the play. It might have been fun at first, but then she jumped a little too high, and pulled a little too hard… and…

The curtain rod is no more.

I came down from my office to get them and noticed that the window did not look right. A quick glance downward revealed the nature of the change in appearance, and I just shook my head in frustration. I surveyed their faces and surmised that Emma was the culprit. (She admitted as much within a few seconds of my assessment.) I scolded her, and removed them from the crib and examined the damage to see if it was reparable. It was not.

So I left the room frustrated and, was also frustrated with Jen that they had somehow escaped her custody. I was just frustrated.

Skip ahead through dinner (steaks!), and bath (fun!), to Emma’s bedtime. She is once again in her brother’s crib (how else can you say good night to him??) and that brings back to her mind the events of the early evening.

“The curtain is broken,” says a sad-voiced Emma.

“Yeah, it is,” says Dad, matching her tone. “But it’s OK, I can fix it.” I even began sort of propping it up to hopefully block some of the morning sunlight.

“Will you let me love you, Dad?” came the sheepish, sullen request.

It took a few seconds to register. I am not sure I’ve ever heard those words strung together, or spoken like that. In our family, we learned that when we wrong each other, rather than saying, “I’m sorry,” which is nice, but leaves the offender still very much “in control”, we feel it’s more appropriate and meaningful to approach the offended, and humbly ask their forgiveness: “Will you please forgive me (for [insert offense here])?”

That is what Emma was asking. She may have been mimicking the tone and phrasing (her own interpretation) of what she’s seen, but I think it was also coming from her heart. And her two-year-old brain actually revealed something amazing to me.

“Will you let me love you” is, in effect, what we’re asking when we ask for forgiveness. Yes, that we’d be forgiven, and receive love from the offended, but also that we’d be allowed to freely give love, too! How could Emma know that? But that’s the great thing! She does!. Jesus said we should be like little children… and that is why. To Emma, life is very simple. Very relational.

(It’s also about candy. And rubber chickens. And frequent screaming. But that’s for another blog post…)

Tonight, Emma got it right. And she got a great big hug and kiss.

And I definitely let her love me. 🙂

by Greg

“Meant To Be” by Steven Curtis Chapman

In light of all that we’ve been surrounded by these past couple weeks, and all we’ve been thinking of, I think I noticed the goodness in this song even more when my kids were watching it yesterday. It’s from the VeggieTales show, “It’s a Meaningful Life” (based on the classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”) which has a cool added focus on adoption and how great that can be.

The chorus always jumps out at me:

You were meant to be touching the lives that you touch,
Meant to be here making this world so much
More than it would be, without you in it.

We are all meaningful. Each of us. And we can be even more meaningful to the people around us when we know it, and live out what matters. Our impact goes far beyond what we perceive, I think.

So, it’s a great song… but it might make you cry.

Enjoy!

by Greg

Live. Now.

More sad news has come this week. Last week we learned of the very sudden, unexpected death of a friend of ours, and have spent the week since praying for and grieving with his family. Today we will join his family as they bury him. Then this week we got a similar call from our very good friends who learned that their cousin had some extremely serious complications during child birth and was in really bad shape. In fact, they were already declaring her “brain dead” and didn’t seem to have much hope to ever revive her.

The next night, we learned that she had in fact passed away.

This was a mom in her early thirties, with a 6-year-old girl, and a newborn baby girl. That’s not supposed to happen. We live in America. We live in the 21st century. We can handle things like a c-section birth, right?

Sadly, we are too often reminded that we are not in control of life.

So today her family is grieving. Her boyfriend, the father of the newborn, is torn apart inside, I’m sure. The joy of your first child is unbelievable, but to lose the woman you love (I am told they had plans to be married after the baby was born) at the same time… excruciating. And her parents. They are now mourning the loss of their daughter, instead of enjoying holding a new granddaughter. (I just can’t imagine…) And there are siblings, cousins (our friends), aunts, uncles, grandparents … all feeling the deep, sudden, tragic sting of this loss.

Later this week I spoke with a friend who traveled half-way around the world to be with her sister who is about to lose her boyfriend to a disease they just discovered he had, and her sister and their infant son are also facing potentially serious health issues. The same day I spoke with some friend who have been dealing with very difficult issues surrounding two teenage boys they brought into their family about four years ago. They’ve been their mom and dad for those years now, giving them a home, a place to be loved… but there’s a lot of rebellion in the boys’ hearts. The oldest of the two has left to be on his own, and the youngest is dealing with some pretty serious issues in life … our friends are tired and weary.

And I feel it all. I feel for all of these friends, some of whom are really more like family, who are dealing directly with hurt or closely surrounded by it. A few thoughts come to mind:

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. – Matt 5:4 (NIV)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds – James 1:2

I’ve had enough thoughts on both of these short verses lately to fill many pages of writing. In fact, I don’t think I’ll deal with the line from James much right now, other than to say I’ve wondered if James was including sadness and/or loss as a “trial”? I’ve always thought so, but these last two weeks I’ve wondered if he didn’t mean to imply that kind of “trial”…

But mourning. There’s plenty of that going on. And any who’ve read that verse (and the surrounding ones) have wondered at the backward picture that Jesus paints of the way God sees life. We’re blessed if we mourn? If we’re meek? If we’re poor in spirit? If we’re persecuted?? Those don’t fit our definition of “blessed”, do they?

Jen told me that she had been thinking about those words, too, and had seen one way it was a blessing. In the midst of grieving and mourning, all of the unimportant is instantly gone, and the only thing that matters is the real. The true things of life. Generally, that’s only our relationships with those who are close to us, and being with them. Our memories of the one we’ve lost. It’s not (usually) any of the things that just recently before had dominated our daily and weekly schedules. Somehow events which cause us to mourn bring us closer to real life than we usually let ourselves be.

That is not to say that hurt or loss are in themselves good. They are not. (At least in my estimation.) But they are part of real life, much more so (usually) than many of our daily activities.

It’s hard to remain there—and no one would want to remain there, in such a painful place—but somehow I think we can. Time heals the wounds we have, even if there are deep scars remaining. Somehow if we could only capture the connection we have with what is important in these moments, perhaps we could really live.

That’s all I’ve been thinking. I mean, I’ve been thinking of many things, but they all seem to have a central theme. That is to live. And to live now. Be where you are. Remember to enjoy the important things and put off the distractions. Now, we all have things we have to do, but I’d say those should frequently be reevaluated, and measured by what we know in these times to have real value. Not that there can’t be “diversions” at times, but even the word itself implies what they are: diversions from reality.

After all of this sadness—perhaps more descriptively, on top of all this sadness—I am feeling very weary. I’ve heard that in my friends tones as well. (If not specifically in their words.) Yesterday I was really feeling it, and in a moment of clarity I was reminded of the oft-quoted words of Jesus:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” – Matt. 11:28 (NIV)

The really cool part was that it seemed like Jesus himself was saying it to me. So I just took a moment to breathe, and remember that even in all of my caring for my friends I can’t do anything about it really … only he can. So I brought the heaviness to him, and asked him for rest. And then I asked the same for all whom I have been lifting up to him these past couple weeks.

He is life. He said so—”I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life“. Not his teachings or someone else’s interpretations of him. Not anything else. Jesus. He is the life. (John 17:3 says, “And this is eternal life: To know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent.”) It’s so simple, but so often missed or forgotten. He is our life source. When we are connected to him (John 15), we can know and live real life.

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” – John 10:10

The reminder at these times is to know what matters and find life in that. Jesus made all that is, and all was made for him (Colossians 1) … he is life. Then God made us in his image. There’s nothing more important than the people God has put into your life, and whose lives you’ve been put into. Don’t wait for the moment when they are gone (or you are gone) to live life to its full with them. We have been reminded all too clearly that we really have no guarantee of our next moment.

But we do have now. So please, live. Now.

by Greg

Life Suddenly Changed

A friend of ours passed away this morning. It was very unexpected, apparently very sudden (though I do not fully know the details) and… it just feels very final.

I have not known this friend very long. We met his daughter and her family a little more than a year ago when they moved to our town. They home school their children and had met some mutual home schooling friends who introduced us and we pretty quickly became good friends. Her parents moved to town shortly after her dad had a massive heart attack (about one year ago) to live in the apartment attached to their house. It was all very God-arranged.

We met Wayne & his wife shortly after they moved to town and, likely due to our good friendship with their daughter and family, they quickly became our good friends too. They were equally quickly “adopted” by our kids as their third set of grandparents. (Really! There was even a signed certificate created by our kids!) 🙂 They graciously offered an open invitation to us to watch our kids any time Jen and I needed to get out for some no-kids time. (And we have taken them up on that invite several times!)

The first time I met Wayne, I realized we had a shared love of words. Both reading and writing. Wayne has been far more prolific than I in both departments, to be sure. I am currently reading a book he recommended, and I had been talking with him about helping him publish some of his books. I hope to still do that for him.

It’s been a strange day. Death has not touched me much in life. Presently, I can only think of two people who were really close to me who have died. My Mom’s dad died when I was 12 or 13. I remember that, and remember thinking, “Wow… that’s weird.” But I didn’t realize till later that reaction was due (at least in part) to my Mom’s relationship with him—I had only been with him a handful of times. The other person is my wife’s brother, Jeff. My brother-in-law for only about a year. He died just before our first son Ian was born. (I remember it was really hard. Really shocking. Very sad.) That’s the reason that Ian bears his name. (Ian Jeffrey Campbell).

Otherwise, death has always seemed to be a couple relationships away from me.

But I know Wayne. He is my friend. I already miss him.

I was processing all of this with another friend in an online conversation when I said, “Life just changed suddenly.” I didn’t mean it to be profound, but the more I thought of it, the more I realized it was true. Life—my life—is now different, and quite suddenly so.

Now, I’m sure I don’t hurt nearly as much as our friends who lost a dad, a husband, a grandpa … and we will be asking God to fill the large void they now (suddenly) have in their lives. He can and I know he will…

But there is a hole. There is an absence. Life… is different.

Each of us is so much more impactful than we admit. (Or perhaps we really don’t realize, or understand it.) Every person we know, every place we go, everything we do … is part of the “fabric” of the lives of all those around us. So, the closer we are, the more time we spend with people, the more the void is felt. But all of us feel the absence. All of us.

So I will (and already do) miss him.

Although I am not as naive as to think that death would never touch me, it still nearly always comes as a shock. We are such hardy, fragile creatures. One moment it’s incredible what we can come through, and the next moment we can be gone within that moment. We just never know.

What that means—since we know that—is that each moment we have is precious. We can very easily get to thinking otherwise. Life’s daily details overtake (perhaps overwhelm) our conscious thoughts. But we just never know when we won’t have the people we love with us anymore. All we know is that we have them—we are with them—now.

Please take a moment today, after you read this, and remind the people around you how much they mean to you. Take a second to encourage some of the greatness you see in them. Maybe take more than a second. We can’t live everyday worried that we are going to lose those we love, but, we can certainly remember to let them know what they mean to us as often as possible.

I’m glad to have known Wayne Leavitt. I hope to see him again one day.

Until then, while I am still here, I am now reminded to enjoy the moments I have with the people whose lives God has intertwined with mine, and to let them know how glad I am that he has.

I hope you will do the same.