On Saturday morning, l was driving along in the car with my family when we saw some ambulances and a number of people on the road up ahead.
We slowed down, as someone was directing the traffic. As we drove past the scene, we were confronted by the site of ambulance officers frenetically performing CPR on a man, with his bike lying damaged nearby. We instantly prayed for the man lying there, but it didn’t look good.
Later that afternoon, I was thinking about whether or not he survived when my wife received a text from a friend stating that someone we know was killed that morning.
That moment, I realized that the man I drove past and saw lying on the road was the same man I was deep in conversation on the beach only two mornings before. My son and his son have the same surf coach and so when training finished, we walked back up the beach together, chatting about business and real estate.
Only a few months earlier, his family and mine shared a house for the weekend, as the boys were surfing in the same competition a couple of hours from home. It was great to get to know him and his wife better, as we spent the weekend hanging out.
It was a staggering thought to realize that, just like that, he was gone. He was busy in his business one moment, then one fatal accident and his life was over.
These sorts of things really keep life in perspective. So much of what we worry about, toil for, and lose sleep over are things that, in the end, do not matter.
Yes, we should dream big and live for something greater than ourselves, but we should also keep it all in perspective. We came into this world with nothing, and we will leave the same way.
Using our talents to live life well is a God given opportunity, but we must never lose sight of the fact that life is short and that in the end, what matters is our relationship with our Maker.
My prayers are with his family as they now piece their life together without him.
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Matt Danswan is the CEO of Initiate Media, publishers of Christian Woman. He also blogs at www.mattdanswan.com. His new book NOT Business As Usual documents the story of the building of Initiate Media debt-free.
