[LifeBlazing]

Steve,

When I worked as an end-of-life chaplain at a large hospital, I learned that from a former patient. He was surrounded by crying family members, and he scolded them: "Don't you dare cry for me! There are things worse than dying... like living half-way!" Well, that shut everyone up. And caused each of us to look at our lives with a new perspective.

Fast forward five years... to August 17, 2008... when my own precious Grandfather (who was much more like a Father to me) died. He was 100.5. He lived all the way. And so I wonder whether my tears are more for him... or for me?

Losing a loved one is so jarring. It's such a ruthless reality-check. Their End forces us to consider our own. And if we're dawdling in some way... holding our best cards for "later"... playing small... loving small... living small... then the sudden absence of our loved one seems to bring that smallness to surface. It compares their Eternity to our Monday. And the chasm might seem unbridgeable. But it's not. The fragrance, and memories, and lessons and wise/funny sayings they leave behind... these are the stones that build the bridge that connects our earthly Monday to their Heavenly Eternity.

Thank you, Steve, for consoling and inspiring at higher and higher heights.