Are you just busy being busy?

Have you gotten one of those emails that you wish never came? I have. As a matter of fact I got one last night. I got word that a friend of mine had died suddenly on Thursday. My heart literally sank. I had to re-read the email several times for it to process in my head. The email came from his wife; I can only imagine how hard it was for her to write. No one could see this coming. No one. He was such an incredible person. Faithful. Hardworking and dedicated. He believed in me. My story. My mission. My purpose. So much that he graciously asked me to mentor his grandson who was incarcerated. I remember how touched I was to be asked to do such a thing. As I have talked about before, faith is about believing in the unseen. The future. Hope. I had never mentored anyone who was incarcerated before. So this man had to have some serious faith to trust that I would be the right person to mentor his grandson. It happened though…. Between writing letters to each other. Talking on the phone with him. Mentoring him about life… I loved it. We would always say how the “20 minutes” we had together on the phone flew by. He would call every week, sometimes two or three times. We made great progress. I felt truly blessed. But then life happened… I got busy. He would call at times when I had clients or when I was out with friends or at Bible study or church. We lost touch. He would keep calling and I would keep not being able to answer. I felt horrible… I would hear progress reports about how well he was doing from his grandfather in the gym. It made me happy. Happy that he was changing his life. Happy that he was beginning to see the light. Part of me felt guilty. Guilty for not being able to answer his phone calls. Guilty for being busy. Does this sound familiar? I am sure it does. It’s life and it happens.

I would see my friend in the gym and feel ashamed. Ashamed that I hadn’t made the time to grab coffee like I had said I would. Ashamed that I was unable to pick up his grandson’s calls. Ashamed for not being able to stick around and chat. Ashamed for being just too busy. Then you get an email. An email you wish you had never gotten. Letting you know that I will never be able to grab that coffee. Or catch up about his grandson or about life. Until we meet again in heaven. This one is going to sting me a bit. I could have made more of an effort. He was a great man who led by example. He always wanted what was best for his family. We are all busy; busy with different things. Work, friends, family, sports etc. But some of us are busy doing the wrong things… spending countless hours on social media, the internet, worrying, engaging in dangerous behaviors…
My challenge to you is that if there is someone you told you would call them…CALL THEM.
Someone you told you would text…TEXT THEM.
Someone you told you would grab coffee with…GRAB COFFEE.
You never know if you will ever get that opportunity again.

Life takes over. It does. We make time for the things that are important to us at the time. That’s a fact. You just never know when your or someone else’s day will come. So I challenge you to give it your best with any relationships you are in. To do your best about how much you care about them. Love them. Blessed to have them. Because you just never know when you will get that email or that phone call.