IN A MOMENT

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I was sitting at my desk working away when my cell phone rang.  It was my sister-in-law.  She never calls me.  Probably a mistake,  She said, "How's Noah?".  Strange.  I said, "Fine, I guess.  Why do you ask?".  She had just landed in San Diego and saw televisions everywhere talking about the devastation in OKC.

I immediately hung up and called my son.  He answered and said, "Call my wife and tell her I'm OK".  I tried to ask a question, but he insisted, "Just call my wife and tell her I'm OK".  So, I did.  Phone lines were, naturally, blowing up there.  I got through and found out she was fine, told her he was fine, the kids were fine...but, life was not fine there.  It was anything but fine.

A 2-mile-wide path of power and destruction had just come within half a mile of their home.  My son had hidden in the bath tub with a mattress over him hearing an unforgettable noise come closer and closer, only to pass him by.  He could see it out of his window.

In a moment, I had gone from busying myself with the stuff of another Monday, to feeling my heart in my throat.  In a moment, I was reminded of how short and fragile and precious life really is.  In a moment, all my very important stuff was reduced to irrelevant.  In a moment, everything changed.

As you go through your life today, please be thankful for every breath you take.  Take nothing for granted.  Do not presume on the future.  Do not put off till tomorrow what needs to be done or said today.  Because, everything...everything can change IN A MOMENT.

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