Just a few days ago, I – along with innumerable others – was reminded of how unbelievably precious life is. I don’t care if that is the biggest, most overused, hackneyed cliche in the entire world, because it has to be heard; it must be engrained in our hearts and minds and thoughts and motives. You see, so often, we get hung up on the trivial, on the shallow, on the totally and completely inconsequential. We parade around as though we’ve got it all figured out, as though we have mastered the beautiful art called life. But, whoa, this could not be further from the truth.

Because wow, is life ever fragile. It’s a difficult thing to believe this fact whole-heartedly, until it becomes blatantly apparent and you’re forced to. This world is sinful; it is literally teeming with vice & destruction & devastation. So, we should all be discouraged, right? We should all live for ourselves, forever complacent because there is no ultimate goal and no reason to anticipate anything more. Umm. No way. You bet this world has the potential to be frightening and daunting. But all thanks be to Jesus Christ, our Hope Incarnate, Peace Epitomized, Compassion Manifest. He’s the kind of hope that is fated to affect, to change the way we view this world and view the people within it. Because when you know Christ, when you really know Him, He becomes prevalent not only in you, but in every last thing that you do. He’s the kind of peace that passes all finite, earthly understanding and looks despair right in the face and laughs. He’s the kind of compassion that compels, that elicits a change, that seeks to thoroughly obliterate the conformist patterns of this world.

And when this happens, suddenly, you embrace a little more often; you love a little deeper; you grasp a little tighter; and you can utter with secure confidence that every day is a sheer joy and every person encountered is an undeniable blessing. Far too often, we go about living as though it’s something to “get through,” when in reality, we should be all over it. We should be head-over-heels in love with living, with really living. Because, yeah, there are going to be trials. This week has made that quite evident. But prayer does wonders. And because of this, we have hope. In any and every circumstance.

C.S. Lewis said something along the lines of, “Nothing that you haven’t given away will ever truly be yours.” How true that is! So spread life. Make it contagious. Just live off of life.

P.S. Shout out to Marissa. You are such a champ, and you are dearly, dearly loved. Shout out to our Father God. And shout out to all those ceaseless pray-ers.