"You will show me the path of life;In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."---Psalm 16:11 (NKJV)
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."---John 13:34-35 (NKJV)
"Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back."---Arthur Rubenstein
This is gonna be a "Max Lucado" size thought for the day. (I promise)
A woman by the name of Denise Levertov once said, "One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language." I surrendered to the fact a long time ago that writing is therapeutic for me; that I process a lot of who/whose I am and why I am on paper...or in keystrokes.
You may not be a published writer, you may not have won a Grammy for songwriting or an NAACP award for a screenplay, but if you write, you are a writer. The visions that you write for your life, the ones that God instructed you to document ("Write the vision...make it CLEAR"-Habakkuk 2:2-3), please take them very seriously. Words have so much power. (Proverbs 18:21) A lot of the answers and revelations that you seek are within in your pen.
OK, so on to the point.
Yesterday, I was traumatized. I was on the highway and, out of no where, two German Shepherd-sized dogs ran out into the traffic. They were in shock...we were in shock. Not knowing what to do (none of us), one made it back to the other side of the road (safely). The other...wasn't so lucky. Just a few feet away from me, I saw an SUV hit him dead on...and a tractor trailer come right behind them to finish the job.
Morbid, I know, and yet God is still good. (Romans 8:28) I was so consumed with what was going on before me, that I was oblivious to what was going on behind me (a note to those who avoid dealing with their past). It had to have been my angels that moved my car over a few feet to the right because if I had put my hand out of my window, a tractor trailer would have taken my arm off...he was flying and just that close. (Mind you...all of this happened in a matter of 3-4 minutes!)
All day yesterday, I was processing that experience. I called an animal lover who I knew would/could sympathize (thanks, Michelle) and while she gave some words of wisdom/comfort/reality, I still wasn't able to totally shake the experience.
I see why now.
There is nothing like seeing life, any life, being taken away. One moment they are standing, breathing, living...and the next, they are gone. I can only imagine how the driver of that SUV must've felt. It wasn't a human, it wasn't even his dog...and yet, it was his vehicle that played a part in the loss of life for that anonymous canine.
As I prayed about for some resolve about it this morning, only one thing did the Holy Spirit say to me:
You are here to be life support. Just make sure you don't take anyone's life from them.
I have spent enough time with him to know what he was really getting at. It wasn't just in reference to someone's physical state of being, but that I don't need to be the cause of someone's lack of vitality, lack of purpose, lack of direction, lack of joy (can we please not be kill joys?), lack of peace of mind, lack of knowledge/wisdom...and even when I can (and am led), lack of provision. (Matthew 25:31-46) Anything that would prevent someone from living their BEST LIFE POSSIBLE, let me not be a contributor to that.
Indeed, when God instructed us not to kill (Exodus 20:13), one definition is "not to put to death", but let's expand our views a bit:
to NOT deprive of life in any manner
to NOT destroy or neutralize the active qualities of
to NOT spoil the effect of
to NOT spend (time) unprofitably
to NOT cause distress or discomfort to
to NOT tire completely; exhaust
DRUM ROLL, PLEASE: to NOT consume completely
We can spend a lot of time debating/analyzing/predicting what religion is all about (although the Word is pretty clear-James 1:27) but bottom line, when Christ came, he said that he came to give ABUNDANT LIFE (John 10:10). As followers of him, shouldn't that be our spiritual priority as well? To not be like SATAN...the DEVIL...TYRE...the THIEF and steal, kill and destroy, but to do all that we can to make sure that those around us, whether we know them or not, by being in our space, have a taste of what "life to its fullest" can and should be for all mankind?
I'm done. I'm just processing on paper and I appreciate you sharing the experience with me. There are so many titles that we can attach to ourselves...so many descriptions. But at the end of the day, after the purpose/meaning behind my names (check out the meanings of your names, please), at least in this season, when people ask me, "So what do you do for a living?" in response I think I will say, "Prayerfully, I am life support."
Thanks for the lesson learned, little furry one.
R.I.P.
©Shellie R. Warren/2009
Posted By: The SISTAHS Ministry
Friday, March 6th 2009 at 8:41AM
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