Coming back to LA 5:30 in the morning, my flight from New Zealand is just about to land as I look out to millions of lights below. There was one freeway that I knew exactly which one it was because of the amount of traffic it had on it. White head lights heading into the city and red break lights going out. Thousands of people starting there day with bumper to bumper traffic. As we land, I get out of the plane still in my togs and tee shirt, I took a deep breath and inhaled all the smog and dirty air and just smiled! I was back in LA, and had to totally change my entire mindset on how I do things. This means even having to drive on the right side of the road, and look right first instead of left! The first thing I did was sat in the car and meditated on the road. RIGHT SIDE!!! DRIVE ON THE RIGHT SIDE!!!
Totally knackered from not being able to sleep on the plane I headed to the place I was staying. Talk about amazing friends who show the love of Jesus Christ and have the gift of hospitality!! Some of the most sacrificial people I know were willing to make sure that I am taken care of while I am here in LA. It hasn’t been easy coming back here knowing that everything that I had is gone. My house, my dog, all my materialism just vanished! So I am truly blessed to know that I have friends who care and help me in every way that they can.
5:30am turned into 5:30pm really fast and as I walked outside in the middle of winter the sun just radiated in a way that hit my face and brought some amazing joy into my life. I looked over to see colors I haven’t seen in a really long time. The clouds brightened the sky and changed from blue, to red, to orange all in a matter of minutes and as I just sat there in awe of God’s amazing beauty I could not help but think about how blessed I am!
It is true that you don’t fully understand what you have until it is gone. Everything from the my friends to the sunset, the weather, you name anything about Southern California and I can now see from being removed from it for so long, how much of a blessing it was to live here. Something that I took for granted for most all of my life, but now see it as so much more than I had ever before. This got me thinking. What do I have in my life that I just take for granted? Are there things that I am just numb too because it was the norm? Even the people in my life! The reality is that we get extremely comfortable with what we have and think that it will be forever. But blessings come and they go, they don’t last forever. In a couple weeks my time here will be gone and memories will all I have to hold on to. My hope is that the time here I can really cherish and love as many people as I can in hopes that I can influence more people to turn to Jesus and live an abundant life.
The challenge to you is to look at your life and see what you take for granted. Then stop and realize that if tomorrow comes and your blessings are no more; would you live in regret? Or would you be satisfied with how you lived with that blessing?
Nobody is promised tomorrow so love people as if it is the last time you will see them.
