Until We Meet Again

They say that deaths come in three's. I hope I am done for a while. In the last two months I will have attended three funerals. The famed British poet and painter, David Harkins, once penned:

You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Two family members and a former athlete have passed the rhelms of this life into another sphere. One of them was sudden, one was expected, and the other the result of a terrible accident. They lived great lives and blessed those who were around them with their presence. 

It is interesting to ponder over our lives and ruminate over what we have made of our time on this earth. When you leave this life, what will people say about you? What will you have accomplished? 

I am not talking about grand and glorious things, but the small and simple things. Who were you as a friend? Who were you as a son, as a daughter? Who were you as a sister, or brother? What kind of worker were you? Did people know you believed in God? Did they know you loved the Gospel?

What will people remember YOU for? When you stand naked, in a sense, before your Heavenly Father with no one else around you, what will be the sum of your life?

Paul, writing to the Hebrews, said, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the ^asin which doth so easily ^bbeset us, and let us run with ^cpatience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the ^aauthor and ^bfinisher of our faith;"

Earlier Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the ^amastery is ^btemperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible ^ccrown; but we an ^dincorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I ^akeep under my ^bbody, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

We are to run with patience the race that is before us and we are also to remember that there is a prize at the end. When the scripture says that "one" will receive the prize I think about our talents. I can't imagine that there is only "one" prize or that only a select few will make it to the presence of God, but he does state, "But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their ^amouths, but they hide the ^btalent which I have given unto them, because of the ^cfear of man. Wo unto such, for mine ^danger is ^ekindled against them. And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful unto me, it shall be ^ataken away, even that which they have."

If we don't find, develop, and share our talents here on earth, it will be taken away from us and the prize we could have had in the end will not be ours. I don't know about you, but when I am running a race I will not only finish it, but I will obtain something for it (even if it is just the satisfaction of knowing I finished).

This is a race that will require everything of us if we run it right. I want to say with President Kimball that I will crawl bloody to the end for the cause for which I set out to do. You never know what will happen to your life ... So live every day to its fullest so that even though the dash may be short on your tombstone, it will represent a life fully lived with love, service and Christ-like virtues.