Three Things Will Last Forever

On Sunday our church went to a local hospital to deliver handmade fleece blankets and offer prayer for patients on the cancer floor. As I drove down the street, the memories began to come. One after another and with every passing block, they came faster. It's been nearly ten years ago since my friend Sherri was battling leukemia and all those visits to see her. Yet it seemed like yesterday as I turned the corner and parked the car.

As we divided up blankets and people, Sherri and I were paired together. I've done this outreach more times than I can count, yet this is the first time I've done it partnered with Sherri. She was joyful, gentle, and strong - arms filled with blankets as we went room to room. I kept watching her interact with the patients and all I could think is, "Wow, she's alive."

We visited five rooms. We met people of all ages and stages of cancer. Couples and singles. Old and young. One had only been diagnosed two days prior. One was facing another diagnosis, which may well be his final. Some were courageous. Some tired. One laughed with us. And another cried.

I have never felt so in touch with life. And such vulnerability. They lie in bed and trust. 

Simultaneously, I'm watching Sherri out of the corner of my eye. Walking room to room, more alive than I've ever seen her.

I left the hospital different than I entered. I had experienced such a range of life and death, joy and sorrow, the ordinary and the sacred, in these moments shared with people I will most likely never see again.

I’m a little less fearful of what I cannot control.
I’m a little less busy trying to make life better.
I’m a little less worried about what others think.

I’ve tasted and seen the three things that will last forever - faith, hope, and love. It is enough.

Living our best lives puts us in places that stretch us. And it is there we discover the fruit we most desperately crave grows. Let’s not shrink back from suffering, from strangers, from friendships, from God. Let’s go. In faith, hope, and the greatest of these… love. Let’s live our best.