How long?

I've got a buddy the same age as I (71) whom I have known for probably 35 years or so.  We crossed a lot of bridges together back in the day, very few of them good bridges.  There was one bridge, however, a few years back that was a good bridge.  He accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior.  Is he a perfect person now because of that.  Certainly not....not any more than you and I are.  We are all still broken, we still need fixing, and we are on that journey where that fixing comes on an almost daily basis.  That's a good thing.  No, make that a great thing.

Now I sense, with deep sadness, that the time is coming when my friend will be called home.  It's sad, because I am here to see his continually worsening medical condition.  My mind reflects on how robust, alive, and full of fun the man once was as I see him now.  I'm not sure where his mind is, but I'm pretty sure it isn't there given all that is going on with him at this time.  Blended with that sadness is a whole lot of joy.  Joy in the knowledge that he spent the last part of his life not as the first part of his life.  A joy that three words spoken a few years ago by a man who traveled the darkest of streets had such a radical impact on him and his short future.  Those words...."I accept Christ."

I visit my buddy regularly.  He's now in a nursing home.  Sometimes he's awake, sometimes he's not.  There are times when inwardly I wonder just how lucid he is.  The other day I noticed that he is now wearing adult diapers, and I wondered if he even knows.  And I wondered how I might feel and react were I in the same circumstances.  As I have looked at him these past few months since the down-hill slide really started, it is with a sense of deep sadness that I wonder how long it will be?  How long will he continue to fight the inevitable?  And I wonder what I would do if in the same circumstances.

The pragmatic side of me views all of this as perhaps a natural progression of the end of the life cycle.  Some folks, I think thankfully, avoid this part of the progression.  They go quickly.  Others, like my friend, linger, and are subject to so many things we swear we hope to avoid in later life.

The spiritual side of me rejoices with my friend.  You see, I have seen no bitterness or anger on his part for the circumstances he is now finding himself in.  I have seen calm.  Not resignation....just calm, and somehow I truly believe that he has seen all of those bad bridges he crossed years ago, and they have paled in the light of that one bridge that mattered most, the bridge he crossed when he said "I accept Christ". 

I hope that I never forget when I crossed that same bridge, the one that matters.  None of us will ever be able to answer the question "how long" as it applies to our lives.  That said, doesn't it seem imperative that we all remember that time when we too crossed that bridge.....and live accordingly....day in and day out?   After all, we just don't know..."how long?" do we?