I’m on a consulting project today, Thursday afternoon, just found out that the project will likely be canceled on Monday. I already have 38 hours booked this week, so in two more hours I’ll be on overtime. It seems like a waste to keep working like crazy toward our goals now. Maybe I should ease up and coast the rest of the week, or maybe I should keep pushing, hoping we’ll get more time and preparing to make a difference.
How quickly things have changed … priorities shifted … one minute pushing hard to achieve something, and the next it’s all but gone … vanished. Nothing. There’s a sudden void, an empty feeling, a darkness out in front of me. Like watching a movie when the power goes out. Back to reality. Time to think about my purpose, why I’m doing what I am doing.
Is Life like that? One day we’re active, looking forward to all kinds of things, filled with daily concerns … and then it’s over. Something unexpected happens and all goes dark, blank; a fatal car wreck, a stroke, heart attack, freak accident. Life’s done. Now what?
Solomon said, “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun: but if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.” (Ec 11:7-8)
The days of darkness shall be many. Life is as a vapor, appearing for a little time and then vanishing away. (Jas 4:14) Let not death be “when your fear comes.” (Pr 1:26-7) Many have said it before but I am reminded of it again … there’s a lot going on in the screen of my life, but when the power goes out, all that will be left is a memory. Then it’s God and me, and that’s all. Is this a pleasant feeling? An unpleasant one? Somehow both? Let me so live each moment that when the darkness comes I’ll welcome it with a smile.
And yes, the project was canceled the following Monday morning, and I was working on my next assignment within two hours. It’s the quickest turnaround I’ve seen in 20 years of consulting. The new project is much better too. So it all worked out well. 🙂