What A Difference A Minute Makes

I have delayed a while in posting this message.  This event changed my life in ways I can never put words to but my sincere hope and prayer is that you will come to an understanding of the importance of your "minute".   This incident has changed the way I live, the way I parent, the way I worship and the way I love.  I am not motived by fear but by the reality that I never know what my next minute holds and I always want to be sure my minutes count for the Kingdom. 

What Difference Does A Minute Make?

Today started like most days.  I was in my own world focused on tasks to add to my to do list and get a plan to make sure those items are checked off.  Unlike most days though, my family had plans to leave town to visit friends.  There was an excitement in my heart because Scott had just given me a birthday present (it is my 40^th bday and the gifts have already started LOL).  The gift is a motorcycle and I was looking forward to riding.  So, my mind was buzzing with the excitement of a trip with my family, a gift and a to do list.  Yes!  Let’s get this day rolling.

My family loaded the car and we departed for our Stringer Adventure.  We were chatting and discussing the journey ahead and came up on the scene of a tragic accident.  Scott immediately transitioned from family man to first responder.  He parked the car on the side of the road and hurried to the scene.  In a moment, everyone connected to the scene, had an encounter with life and death and was never the same again. 

An encounter with life and death …. Worlds collide and present time crashed with eternity.  As I sat in the car, I was totally captivated by a whirlwind of emotions.  My first thoughts raced to my daughter who was seeing what is possibly the most tragic experience of her 16 years.  I inquired of her and she was amped up, surveying the scene measuring every detail and move and paralleling it to her future aspirations of becoming a nurse.  The gentle calling of our Heavenly Father to put the lives of others before her own life protected her heart.  Her thoughts were never about what she was seeing but how her future could be shaped and how she could use this experience to assist her in her dream to become a nurse.  I then began the mental fight of the images that were burning in my mind – a gentleman lay dying from a motorcycle accident and my husband, less than 24 hours earlier, gave me a motorcycle of my own.  The onslaught of fear was overwhelming.  As I reeled in all my thoughts, I was overwhelmed with the spiritual implications of the scene before me.  My heart had an overwhelming peace concerning the gentleman that was lying on the ground.  I couldn’t physically see what I could spiritually discern regarding the gentleman’s fate.  Naturally, you know what is going to happen.  However, what I experienced was beyond any natural explanation.  There was a beautiful peace surrounding that gentleman and in a minute, I was fully aware that he was no longer walking on the earth but had transitioned to an eternity we can’t fathom, eternity with God.  As I sat in my car, my heart was consumed with the song It is Well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqo4Un2uZI) so I plugged in my phone to play the song and began to pray for the family and friends of this gentleman.

In a minute, everything changed.  The life of a delivery truck driver was radically shifted and the family and friends of the motorcycle driver lost a father, a grandfather, an uncle, and a friend.  What difference does a minute make?  You might ask yourself that question and the answer is a minute can make the difference between two worlds colliding.  Never take a minute for granted.  You don’t know what the next minute holds.  That day, one minute made the difference of life and death.  However, I was and always will be, firmly rooted in the understanding that my spirit witnessed something my eyes never can understand.  A gentleman of faith in God transitioned from earth to heaven.  What are you doing with your minute?  I want to encourage you to make your minutes count – you never know what the next one holds.

My prayers for you today are that you would have an encounter with God and that you would find purpose and destiny to attach to the minutes you have been given.