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TheDiscipleMD

It opened a number of years ago and was located about a block from my work. I passed it each day on the way to the office. It’s building was shiny and new. I thought as I passed by it years back that there used to be an Exxon gas station there…or was it a Texaco station? It hadn’t been that long but somehow I didn’t  remember. Funny how when the landscape changes around you, it’s not long before you forget what used to be there.   The entire area has changed since I moved to it forty years ago.  But if asked, I would have to strain to tell you what “used” to be here or what used to be there. Sadly, looking at that new Walgreen brought back an experience that relates this point, but on a human level.

Before becoming an insurance agent, I was a manager for the same company. When I decided to go into agency work a new man replaced me in management. He was a nice guy and he would often stop by to see me and pick my brain regarding his new job. I visited him at his new office, my old office, one summer evening. My name placard had been removed and his name was now perched on the outside of the door. We talked, joked and spent about an hour together. I bid him farewell that evening and drove home. The next day around noon I received a call at my office informing me that this man had tragically died in a car accident earlier that morning. I was stunned and shocked. His death was the talk of the company.

Funeral plans were made and the company flew in corporate executives to attend and console the family and company friends. The funeral was a nice affair. Many tears were shed and nice things spoken. A few months went by and I had occasion to again visit my old office. I couldn’t help but notice that a new name was now in place on my old friends office door. I walked around and talked to a few of the company employees and enjoyed myself. When I left I couldn’t help but note that no one brought up my friend’s name, nor did I. It made me reflect on how someone can give their entire life to a company and how soon they can be forgotten. It made me think!

It reminded me again, that no one on their death-bed has said they wish they had spent more time at the office. No, when death is near, most ponder how they have squandered their time in pursuit of worldly things, when heavenly things were crying out for attention.

We all need to make a living, it is our charge. But making a living doesn’t mean making it “our” living. Our living should be for eternal things. Things that time will not destroy if we invest in them. Our marriage, our families, our love of God. Yes this world is temporary. It is ever-changing. But, the scriptures offer hope.

“What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself, and though heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled…” (D&C 1:38)

Unlike the books of men, if we are faithful, our names will be recorded in the ‘Lamb’s Book of Life’, never to be blotted out. (Rev. 3:5)