The Greatest is LOVE

I had a major anxiety attack about a week ago.  I thought I was going to die.  I'd try to shut my eyes to sleep and my heart would stop pounding and I felt like I couldn't breathe and I would open my eyes with a gasp trying to suck in as much air as I could.  As much air as I needed to keep living.

Life is so precious. Many days I take for granted the fact that I'm alive.  That I can breathe.  That I can shut my eyes to sleep knowing that after a few hours I would wake up again.  Alive. Breathing. Still here. Able to plan and work and create and rest.  Things that we usually take for granted suddenly have a profound worth and value when you think you're going to die.  When you think that any breath you take will be your last.

I'm not dead though. Thank God. My breathing is back to normal.  My heart is pounding steadily and there is plenty of air without and within. I'm alive. And snippets of the conversation I was having with Peris when I thought I was dying come back to me. I asked her to teach the children about God. I asked her to tell my niece Erica that I loved her. I forgave everybody that had hurt me.  And I prayed that when Christ returned He would find faith on earth. I didn't think about my car or my clothes or even my job.  

In those moments I grasped on to the hope that the work that I had done to spread the Gospel of Christ would continue.  I prayed that we who know Christ would not give up on sharing what we have learnt with others and I prayed that the love that I had tried to show to those around me would be sufficient.  I felt so helpless. I wished I had more time. But I was ready to go because I understood that if that was God's will then it was perfect.

I didn't die. But something in me came alive that day. A desire to honour God with my every word and my every breath.  It doesn't matter what story we have told ourselves about what is important in life.  The truth is when its time to say goodbye there are three things that become of great importance. Faith. Do you believe in something greater than you.  Do you have faith in the things that will transcend time? Hope. Do you have a hope in that which is eternal? Is there something that you can hold on to and till the very end.  Love.  Did you love with all your ability? When you are gone will others remember how you loved them?

The word of God is so clear...

These three remain.  Faith. Hope. Love.  

And the greatest is Love.