This I Believe

THIS I BELIEVE: THE TIME WE THINK WE HAVE MAY NOT BE SO

As with us all, I have a tendency to believe we have “all the time in the world” to get things done. I’m not exactly a procrasinator, but I border on it. And at times, that’s a good thing.

But how much time we have for anything or everything is not always our decision. And how much time we have in life can certainly be attributed to a Higher source. Only He knows when, where and how our time will cease.

This is why I have adopted a habit of telling those around me things I may never have said in the past. How I feel, what I think, why I believe something.

I had a dear friend who had been through some tough medical issues. The hospital bills were staggering but she had been blessed with an insurance plan. However, because the facility she’d been sent to was out of network, the plan was going to pay less than the normal amount to a network hospital. She was asked to “put it in writing” and state her case as to why she should be excused from the additional expense. The illness had been an emergency resulting in transfer to an out of town medical facility. At the time she was unable to make a decision which was why she was making the request.

During the correspondence and telephone calls regarding this and other issues, she was getting along well and improving daily. Then a setback put her back into the hospital then a rehabilitation center. Because she was getting better and expected to return home, when a hosptial bill arrived, I opened it to discover that the insurance had come through and her portion owed was small.

Wanting to save this wonderful news for her homecoming, I didn’t tell her. Days later she took a turn for the worse and passed away. And of all the things we think of at a time such as this, one of the first that came to me was that I never got to give her the good news. I thought I had time to do this. I thought there was so much time left. But sadly, there was not.

A recent horrifying airline crash which killed nearly 200 people can also be attributed to the “we have time” theory. The airline had been given 10 days for repairs so they had “time” and allowed the craft to continue flying. When the malfunction occurred, the pilot made desperate attempts to bring the plane airborne again, but failed and the aircraft crashed into a gasoline station, incinerating innocent lives. Because there was “time” to make the repair, the delay was chosen over the safety factor and people perished needlessly.

Though in a way we do have all the time in the world to do things, it can be sadly apparent that we do not.

Never put off telling someone how you feel about them. Never hesitate to say “I love you!” even if it feels awkward. Living life as though it could end any moment isn’t a pleasant thought, but the stark reality is that that is exactly what can happen.

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