YOU DON’T REGRET THE THINGS YOU DO HALF AS MUCH AS THOSE YOU DON’T

        The story is that Reverend Cox from Drexel Park Church in Chicago believed this to be the most important rule of life.   He was my mother’s pastor.  She told it to me when I was quite young and I took it seriously and with very few exceptions have followed it my whole life. I discovered fairly early that its not just that you are saved the guilt of missed opportunities but that doing the “thing you should do” visiting someone before they die, writing the thank you letter or going to the funeral, returns blessings beyond that expected.  Today was no exception.  When I heard that my friend Eileen had the hospital bed moved in and her daughter was talking hospice I needed to go see her.  I know Eileen from church I don’t have a relationship with her outside of church.  But she is someone who is in my heart.  We talk politics before church.  I reassure her that everything will be ok and who to vote for. So I took her daughter’s number Sunday and planned to go this week.  So today was the day.  I made the call and planned to go this afternoon.  As I was driving up to the house the doubts started.  The things that keep us from doing these things.  “This is going to be awkward” “Am I doing the right thing” Etc.

    As I walked into to her room she greeted me with excitement and grabbed my hand,  We talked about politics.  I told her to not worry about Franken and Dayton.  That I would take care of it.  She bemoaned how President Obama was not as progressive as she had hoped.  I reminded her about Oscar Romero’s prayer.  That the Kingdom of God is beyond our reach. She responded: “Oh Oscar Romero… We have had some good Captains haven’t we… and Nelson Mandela.”

   There was something about how she said it, that gave me that “Word of God” feeling or was it the fact that this was a Mathew 25 moment.