Imagine that I did not tell my best friends that I would leave them for a couple months to travel in Africa. Just packed my stuff, boarded the plane and sent them a message: ‘Hi guys, I just left the country, I’ll see you in five months. Enjoy your day!’ I can only imagine the reactions of my friends. Disappointment, incomprehension and probably anger as well. Reactions like that would be totally understandable.
Since I’ve been away for a couple of months now (and trust me, I did inform them of my travels!) I have had time to reflect on my relationships back home. When I think about the friendships I have I feel truly blessed. I am certain that they love me and that they would help me right away if I needed them. The difficult part of my reflection, however started when my friend Mary called me with bad news. Her dad, who is in his 40’s, has been diagnosed with cancer and the tumor is in his heart already. They don’t know how long he has to live and if he will be able to see his own children grow up. ‘I don’t know if you are going to be able to see him again’, she told me. What can you say at a moment like that?
A few days after this call I was listening to this song by David Crowder. And suddenly the lyrics hit me, even though I have heard this joyful song a hundred times already:
Suddenly the song did not sound so joyful any more. I imagined Mary celebrating New Year with her family, probably not really very joyful. I was wondering if there would be questions she would now really want to ask her dad, questions she’d maybe wanted to ask for years already but never knew if it was the right time. And then I asked myself some questions: ‘Are there questions I still need to ask?’, ‘Do my friends know where I’d fly to if I died today? Did I ask them about their destination?’ I realized that some of my relationships are not as deep as I want them to be. I don’t want to leave this earth without my friends knowing where they are going after this life. Or without at least trying to help them understand that they have a choice in the matter.
There is “a land where joy will never end”. And while we’re here, where happiness is temporary and life is short, we do have a choice about making sure we go there.
