A Gift



It’s A Gift: Title Passes to the Recipient


Psalm 19

THE heavens declare the glory of God; * and the firmament showeth his handy-work. 2 One day telleth another; * and one night certifieth another.
3 There is neither speech nor language; * but their voices are heard among them. 4 Their sound is gone out into all lands; * and their words into the ends of the world.
5 In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun; * which cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course. 6 It goeth forth from the uttermost part of the heaven, and runneth about unto the end of it again; * and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
7 The law of the LORD is an undefiled law, converting the soul; * the testimony of the LORD is sure, and giveth wisdom unto the simple. 8 The statutes of the LORD are right, and rejoice the heart; * the commandment of the LORD is pure, and giveth light unto the eyes.9 The fear of the LORD is clean, and endureth for ever; * the judgments of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; * sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb.11 Moreover, by them is thy servant taught; * and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12 Who can tell how oft he offendeth? * O cleanse thou me from my secret faults. 13 Keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins, lest they get the dominion over me; * so shall I be undefiled, and innocent from the great offence.
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be alway acceptable in thy sight, * O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. (Coverdale Psalter, 1535)
Life Is Good and creation is magnificent and Every Day Is A Beautiful Day. The life that we have is God’s gift to us and therefore is ours, belongs to each of us individually, personally, solely and exclusively. As Christians, we are bound and commanded lovingly to share our life with others and to share in their lives too; but in the end, our life is ours, a gift to use as we alone choose. 
For each of us individually life ends at some point, an unaccompanied, perhaps lonely event into which, like it or not we go alone. What is and/or is not after that is not known. Believed, or faithed, or thought, or hoped; but not known. And need not be feared either by us for ourselves, or for us by those who love us.
Life ends differently for each of us, seemingly fairly for some and unfairly for some. For several months, October 2010 through January 2011, i was confident my life would suddenly stop, heart failure, cardiac arrest; the medical prognosis was such. That would not have been my choice necessarily, but we do not get to choose; and that ending would have been OK with me. In fact, I kept saying, “It’s OK,” but friends and loved ones kept saying, “No, Tom, it is not OK” and packed me off to Cleveland. Now, after Cleveland, life is back to normal: uncertain and indefinite again like everybody else. And I’m here in +Time until the referee stops the clock.
But there is nevertheless an ending. Should I end up terminally ill, I could conceivably get to the point of wanting life to end, being ready to die, wanting to die -- because of either pain, or loss of life’s dignity and quality. If it comes to that, I will want and hope for the opportunity and ability to make and effect my own decision. And that without legal or other implications or guilt for friends or loved ones. 
   
HWL again, this one classic. With faith and hope, he corrects the nihilists.
A Psalm of Life
Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Life Is Good and Every Day Is A Beautiful Day. And when that can no longer be said or thought or known or felt, it will be time to let it go. If I cannot make that choice myself, I pray that those around me who love me will do what they can to let it be and let me go. 
In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,* and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:4b-7, NRSV)

The Breath of God, life is a gift. It’s personal to each of us. I took it up, and I can give it back.
TW+ in +Time