4.26.06- one year later

I feel I should blog today. I haven't, due to being busy and, honestly, not really wanting to. I have had a lot to say, but I guess have just forgotten about blogging. I don't have Joanna reminding me to. She is, after all, to "blame" for this blog.

One year ago right now, I was sitting in the chapel by a few friends, watery eyes, as I heard the names of those pronounced dead in the TU car accident. I had only heard of the names, but didn't know the people. I spent the next hour or so going around to my friends, giving out hugs and being there for them. This year, I have done something similar; I have joined others in their grief and loss. It was good to be in chapel Wednesday, when we had a short slide show of their lives and brief remembrance. Tonight we had a full remembrance service, looking "forward from the event and at the lives of our friends. The remembrances will focus on legacy." There was singing, scripture reading, and 10 stories of the five lives.

This day does not hold much pain or hurt for me, but I know it does for others, so I have joined them and been there as support. My thoughts of today have been two fold. The first is the weird, great feeling of knowing that the faces that I saw around campus a little over a year ago are now seeing the face of God and are with Him in heaven. It is a mix of sadness that they are no longer here, joy that they are there, and jealousy that they are out of this world and with our Father. Secondly, their legacies are all about lives off love, for God and others. Those are the things that are remembered. That, after all, is the greatest commandment: to love God and others.

If that is the greatest commandment, should that not be the one thing we strive for more than any other? Not reading our Bible, not being involved, not even bringing glory to God. Yes, all of those things come out of this, but the one thing, the only thing we should be reaching for in life is to love God. That will allow us to love others. To get there, we must spend time in the Word, in the process we will become involved in the body of Christ, and as a result, we will bring God glory. But our focus is clear: Love God with all of our hearts, soul and mind!

And so, I am back into blogging...