Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / Chattanooga Times Free Press President Jeff DeLoach poses in the studio on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tenn.If not weekly, once a month or so it seems something unexpected happens to me. A vast majority of the time it is nothing big, just something that needs to be dealt with, and life moves on nicely afterward. Then there are times when the unexpected is fairly significant and requires a good amount of attention. In these cases, it is either a situation I had no idea I was going to be confronted with and for which I am not prepared, or it is something I knew was going to happen at some point, I just did not know when. With these items I know are going to happen, just not when, I try my best to be prepared for them for whenever they do happen.
Most things that are going to happen to us are not consequential enough to really think about beforehand, and certainly not big enough to spend time being prepared for. Life is just too short. But there are a few things we shouldn’t let another day pass without being prepared for – one particularly.
A few years ago I had two friends who faced this about three weeks apart. They both were aware they were going to face it at some point, they just did not know when. My wife and I had dinner with one of them and his wife in our home the night before it happened to him. With the other friend, I had shared emails the night before it happened to him. For both, the night before was routine in all significant respects, but the following day they both faced unexpected medical situations that became very serious very fast, and put them face to face with the biggest unexpected event any of us will ever face.
Unfortunately, they both lost their Earthly life fairly quickly after their unexpected medical events. Yes, death is the most significant thing that is going to happen to us; we just do not know when. So it is certainly one of the things we need to be prepared for. And while even the best-laid plans will not be complete, there are things we want to make sure we prioritize in our preparations.
Based on what I knew of my two friends, I believe they are in heaven today and will be for eternity. I say this because they both had prepared for the day God would call them home. They just did not know when it would happen. But most importantly, they were prepared. What a joy that is and was for the ones they left behind in this world.