Ed Bahler’s Blog…To Enhance Ministry

Socrates said, “The unexamined life isn’t worth living. So maybe it’s OK I’m sitting at my keyboard at 4 am Sunday morning with far too many thoughts to sleep. I’m pondering the graduation yesterday of our fifth of six kids. We were blessed to have a special group of friends stop by. As I sat with them, we all wondered just how life could be passing so quickly.

In addition, two weeks ago we were blessed to attend the graduation of our son and son-in-law from the Indiana University School of Medicine. It was an impressive ceremony. It was just yesterday, it seems, we were encouraging them to take on the challenge of applying and interviewing for admission. The mountain seemed so big. Now it’s behind them, almost forgotten. Life moves on to the next phase.

Thoughts of Solomon float through my mind, “Vanity, vanity, it’s all vanity”. And in many ways it seems it is. It’s here and gone so quickly. Yesterday, I commented to some friends, “Memories are overrated.” The phases of life come and go so quickly. Our minds rapidly shift to the new ones leaving the past ones as nothing but imaginary thoughts. Like that Proverb about our life being “but a vapor”. Could it really be as vain and pointless as Solomon lamented and it sometimes feels?

Then I thought of Jimmy Stewart and his ageless Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” We do touch each other’s lives in significant ways. It does matter. We matter. Jesus clarified it well when he said, “Love God and love your neighbor.” And as I think of it, those friends were here because we have loved them and they in turn love us. We were there when they hurt and they for us. We celebrated their successes and they ours. Their kids were our friend’s kids and our’s theirs.

And now I’m choking up, eyes welling with emotion, as I sit here alone in the quietness of the morning. Jesus, as well as Jimmy Stewart, was right. It is about loving God which creates a healthy spirit to love others. And when we do love, it matters, and comes back many times over. It is a wonderful life.

This post wasn’t intended to be a part of, or tie into, my current three part series on “Creating A Covenant Community.” But that is what I’m working through here as I think of it. The emotion I was feeling a moment ago was provoked by this covenant, this commitment to do life together, to love and be loved. A covenant that creates purpose and value when successes alone leave us feeling rather empty and sleepless at 4 am.

Oh! Yes, congrats Kaitlin, I’m thankful for you. And Clint and Luke, I am proud of you two. Your resolve to fight through the tough times has been an inspiration. All of you have made this phase a blessing…a wonderful life.

Dad