Death, False Alarms, and Second Chances

Death, False Alarms and Second Chances
Week 1; Day 2; Tuesday

Have you ever had a false alarm as to the whereabouts of someone you love? It can strike you anytime, like when you hear about an accident on the freeway your spouse takes to work and now you can’t reach him on his cell phone. Or when your kids are out and sirens sound in your neighborhood. Or your mom goes in for a biopsy and now you are waiting on the results.

For a moment, in situations such as these, you live with the reality that something terribly bad has happened. Perhaps it hasn’t- you can’t confirm it either way- but your emotions have a tendency to assume the worst, so that at least in the area of your feelings, it’s as if it has happened.

The challenging thing is how powerless we are to stop the flow of feelings and “what-ifs” in times like these. It’s like trying to shut off a faucet stuck in the “on” position with a broken valve. You can pray, but you can’t stop the flood of emotions.

Sometimes this can be good, even though it turns out to be a false alarm. For the moment that we feel this, we experience life from a far different perspective. Suddenly that argument you had with your husband seems so petty. You regret the tone of voice you used to berate your children for not doing their chores. You start searching for the last time you told your mom you loved her and you can’t remember.

This is exactly the frame of mind we want to be in for the next few weeks, only we are the ones with the bad news. This may be a false alarm, but we don’t really know for sure, so we are going to live as if we were dying and each day we wake up breathing will be like a second chance.

What would become important if you only had weeks to live? What would not? What will this false alarm do to your relationships and priorities? You have a second chance at life. What will you do?

When the prodigal son returned home after blowing his inheritance, he was greeted with this: “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him,” exclaimed his father after throwing his arms around his son. “Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:22-24).

This father thought his son was dead, but it was a false alarm. For the son it’s a second chance and this time he has a much different perspective. He’s even willing to be a servant on his father’s farm, just to be home. He has a whole new set of priorities now.

What will your priorities be?