Gonna hold who needs holding

Have you ever stopped to think about just how short life is? I sure have been thinking about it lately. Back in the book of Genesis, chapter 6 and verse 3, God said this: "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Also, if you look in the oldest book of the Bible, Job, chapter 14 verse 1, it says: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." Over in the New Testament in the book of James, chapter 4 verse 14, it says: "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

So, we are not guaranteed a long life and we can rest assured while we are here it will be full of trouble and will seem but just a vapour to us when our time comes to an end. We should really think about what we are doing with our time while we are here. In my sermon last night at church, I made mention that the only thing that matters while we are here on earth are the things that we do for Christ. The pastor said essentially the very same thing in his sermon yesterday morning.

The picture at the beginning of this post is of me and my aunt Barbara. It was taken this past Saturday at a surprise birthday party that we had for her at my aunt Brenda's house. This picture means a lot to me. It seems like only yesterday that I was a little kid visiting her house on DeMarcus Ln off of Greenway Drive. She used to teach my sisters piano. She also taught me for a while but being a little rambunctious boy, I found it hard to sit still on the piano bench long enough to learn. I can remember that Barbara always kept a bowl of mints at her house. I would carefully lift the lid of the crystal candy dish she would keep it in and get one out and pop it in my mouth and let it melt on my tongue. It was a big treat for me. Usually my mom would end up telling me to quit eating up all of Barbara's candy!

Back in those days, Uncle Chester (Barbara's husband) ran Greenway Tire Co. I used to love to go down there and visit while he worked. He would buy me a cold Mountain Dew out of the coke machine. I really felt like a big man on those days.

Nowadays Barbara plays the piano at our church, Highland Baptist, and Chester works in the sound room. I always have people telling me that I do such a good job leading the music at church but what they don't realize is, without Barbara I wouldn't be worth a hill of beans! She painstakingly lowers each piece of music for me so I can lead it. She also helps me out when learning new music.

Barbara was diagnosed with cancer last year and she has been going through so many problems and treatments. We have been praying for her daily. Just as with my sister Pam, I don't understand why certain people have to go through things like this. I do know that it builds faith in God. I hope and pray that when it's all said and done with that I can be like Job and say, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." But, until that day comes "I'm gonna hold who needs holding, mend what needs mending, walk what needs walking, though it means an extra mile, pray what needs praying, say what needs saying, Because we're only here for a little while." - Billy Dean