Giving in to Despair

As I mentioned in the post below, my professor (and friend) Al Groves has a blog chronicling his fight with cancer. He posted this wonderful insight the other day, and I had to share it and comment on it.

I encourage you to read it to get the full effect, but he talks about the act of flossing his teeth, and the decision each night to do so or not to do so, as a definitive act of hope, and a decision to go on living. He's never enjoyed flossing, and if he's dying, "what's the point?"

His response was quite inspiring, and in fact rather convicting for me. All too often I find myself doing things the easy way, or even the sinful way, in order to get from point A to point B. It occurred to me in reading Al's post that in these times that I am giving in to despair, and in fact, even moreso, giving in to death. The decisions we make on a moment to moment basis are not inconsequential. The decision to brush your teeth in the morning, or to floss at night really has eternal consequence - not because there is something inherently good or evil in those things per se, but there is most certainly something in our attitudes and our responses to the everyday things of life. Al's decision to floss his teeth last night was a decision that honored God with his life, when he could have easily gone to bed a little bit more "blissfully".

I need to begin to strive for less bliss for me and more honor for God, and for Christ, who has given me life that I have barely begun to taste, and love that I can hardly bare.