Hello Life!

Have you ever seen that commercial, I think it's for an insurance company, where the parent is swinging their child on the swing? Back and forth, back and forth the child goes on and off screen, and then all of a sudden the child goes offscreen and comes back onscreen as a young adult--wham!--and hits the parent. Then the voiceover announces as if we should have seen it coming: "Life comes at you fast."

I used to laugh hysterically at that commercial. I still do, but now there is a twinge of bittersweetness to it as well because my life is coming at me so fast right now! That's one of many reasons that "Hello Life" is so appropriate right now.

Life is hurtling at all of us so quickly that sometimes we barely have time to stop and say "Hello Life!" It's easy to forget at times that we are just blips on the radar screen of eternity, vapors amidst our never-changing God, the little I am nots of the Great Story. We can so easily get bogged down, or self-absorbed, that we miss it, and before we know it our "Hello Life" has turned into a "Goodbye Life"!

Have you ever had one of those "Hello! Life!" moments? Now I'm talking about the "Duh! Heeeeello!" times. When something is so obvious that you just wanna say, "Hello! Life!"? I have those, too.

But amidst the rush of oncoming life, and the smacks-in-the-face from obvious life, there's one more attitude you can take: that of grabbing life by the horns, facing it head-on and exclaiming in a bring-it-on manner, "Hello Life!" It's a "Hello! I am ready for you! Let's go!" attitude. The attitude that makes normal, comfortable adults abandon everything to spread the name of Jesus in tribes that aren't even on the map. It's the attitude that makes satisfied, contented families reach out and take in troubled children from across the street or across the globe. It's that attitude that turns a stagnant student into something radical for God's Kingdom. And it's the same attitude that makes you stand firm in the little things--sometimes the hardest things--making right choices, putting others first, delaying gratification, serving, cleaning, studying, working... so that the light you have been given shines to all.

"Hello Life. Bring it on! I am ready!"