Temporary Sojourn

Day Six6… ….Life is a Temporary Assignment…

Temporary is the other side of forever. In order to understand the incredible benefits of eternity, contemplate “temporary”. That is today’s quest…to contemplate “temporary.”

God gave me a fitting example of this today; I found myself attending a funeral. This man had a long bout with cancer, his life seemingly “cut short” at 47 years. That’s an interesting phrase we use… “Life cut short.” As if we were guaranteed a specific number of days or hours, however it be allotted. God commands “life allocation:” two years to an infant, 47 years to the man whose funeral I attended, and maybe only a day more for me. “Temporary” …such is life.

This is a quote from the blog of a twenty-two year old young man (pictured above) who has stage four cancer. It was written only four days ago…

Today, even in the midst of my many successes and triumphs, it is difficult to feel anything other than melancholy. The sickness and infection, which, a few weeks ago, had me fighting for my life has dissipated. The overwhelming sense of urgency has passed, for now. Following my second treatment I am significantly less ill than I was before, nevertheless, the challenges I am facing seem to be increasing in difficulty. My mind and my body prioritize the pain… Death has become a painful and terrifying reality. The many dreams and aspirations of my youth are now tainted, considering I no longer believe in the delusional rhetoric of luxury and safety. That is, up to this point, everything I’ve wanted and everything I’ve sought after has lost meaning. Every great and noble accomplishment will be gently lowered into the ground.
-- Jon Pound …read his blog here.

When “temporary” pokes its head out and reminds us that none shall last, it extracts all meaning and purpose from most everything we aspire to do and to be. As long as we don’t go to funerals, and there is no pain to remind us of fragile finiteness, we can just put temporary in our pockets, out of sight, and live life in bliss. But temporary always bites us upon remembrance. Why not embrace it? Ah yes, so much the better is contemplating and cherishing this thing called “temporary.”

Temporary is just another way of saying that there is something more and something better beyond a current, short-lived life.

But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away.
-- 1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Sojourn this life in temporary fashion.