My love died of a broken heart.....

I received the autopsy report yesterday. It's a detailed five page report crammed pack with words I cant pronounce but in summary and with sparing much of the gory details, his heart was fatally injured on impact. A broken heart, my love died of a broken heart!

Life for Dennis was an amazing adventure. He had traveled to 157 countries during his long military career. He saw and experienced more in his 44 years than most humans do in a life time. He lived a full life littered with many hats. From a veteran of war to teaching as a sub in elementary school, he did it all. He lived fast and with passion. He gave his everything to everything, never did anything so so and always gave 100%. That included his love for his saviour first and foremost. I remember him telling me that in times of peace, the priority rank was "God, Family, Country". However in times of war, the rank changed to "God, Country, Family", but ALWAYS GOD first!

After retirement from the Air Force, Den struggled with settling in to the mundane redundancy of ordinary life. It took years for him to find a new rhythm but he eventually did. He enjoyed life but worked too hard and worried too much. Because he innately gave his all to everything, he stretched himself too thin, exhausted his body and labored his soul. God saw my loves humility and stewardship. He saw His son live selflessly year after year and so it was that perhaps our Lord said to him "job well done my son". Then shrouded him with the weightless blanket of love, peace and mercy. He gave him the ULTIMATE GIFT!

Left behind are many more broken hearts but hearts broken much differently. Hearts broken with purpose. Purpose intended as 2nd chance gifts of enlightenment. Gifts provided to help the weary stop and take notice. To discard the things of this world and set their eyes on HIM, and ONLY HIM. For me, mission accomplished. I need nothing from this world. I need salvation, I need mercy.

Today I have an arsenal of adjectives I could use to describe how I'm feeling, I wont bore you with the depressing details. Especially during this "festive" holiday season. As you can plainly see, I'm no poster child candidate for holiday cheer. I am however, the steady flow of reality. The reality that behind the parties, gifts and celebration, the only item of value is Jesus Christ. All the other "STUFF" is like Solomon so eloquently explains in Ecclesiastes, "chasing the wind". We create busy calendars in feeble attempts to stifle the boredom of life. Skirting the reality of our pointless existences by lives filled with busyness and things. Life is hard, no matter how you slice it. To keep it interesting, it requires huge amounts of and a steady flow of energy. Energy lost in pointless activities. Don't get me wrong, I'm as guilty as the next. Why just today I chased the wind by shopping for things of no real value. Laboring over which picture frame would look best on my table! Ridiculous when you really think about it but its just so easy to jump on that bandwagon (driven by satan) and become consumed by the things of this world.

So in this season of hustle and bustle, I hope that you stop and think about my Dennis. Remember how in just a moments time, your story could end. How worry invested in anything of this world, outside of salvation, is energy lost.

ALWAYS keep your eye on the prize!

Glory be to God in the HIGHEST!!!!