Feeling our Mortality During Lent

In the past week, I (Stu) have experienced some rather wild circumstances. The most significant was waking up last Thursday with incredible stomach pain in the middle of the night. After trying to "gut it out" (pun intended), I eventually relented, woke my wife up, and told her I needed to go to the hospital.

When I arrived in the ER and was asked my symptoms, the emotion, pain and googling symptoms all swirled together as I responded: "All the symptoms of someone with appendicitis." After some poking and prodding, my internet self-diagnosis was confirmed and I was swiftly placed in surgery, an emergency appendectomy.

The good news is, I'm on the road to recovery, but the experience was a brush with mortality, and the lingering pain testifies to a life embodied that will eventually end.

No matter what, all of our bodies, mine included, will reach their expiration date. Earthly life is fleeting. Our Savior understands this too, having entered Jerusalem on a donkey to the waving of palm fronds, only to be dying on a cross within the same week.

As we reach this final week and a half of Lent, may we remember our lives are both dust and spirit.

God bless,

Stu

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