Life Is About People

I believe that the only thing in life that matters is people. This belief came out of a life-changing event. It was February, 1995, a few days after my 50th birthday. I was in the hospital when a doctor informed me that I had colon cancer and the prognosis was poor. I was thought to have stage 4 cancer and maybe one year to live. I had always been very healthy, so when I was faced with death in a more immediate sense, I began to think about and actually contemplate and evaluate the really important things in life when it is all said and done. I came to understand that much of my life was filled with activities and priorities that did not matter after all. More often than not, my purpose was to gain approval from others rather than just be the best person I could be and do the best I can at the time with what I have.

That was many years ago. When my insignificant priorities seem to crowd out that knowledge, I try to keep in mind the words of a very wise man who wrote about two thousand years ago: “Don’t be selfish, don’t live to make a good impression on others; be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.”

I am an imperfect person and daily in need of God’s grace and guidance to stay mindful that the only thing in life that matters is people.