George's Heart

A coworker of mine had a heart attack about a month ago. George always used to walk around here snarling and complaining about how much he had to do and how big the backlog was. He’s been slowly coming back to work, putting in half days, taking it easy. He and I sat down with our supervisor and talked about how he’s doing. My boss asked him if he had looked at our work backlog and George said, “I don’t care about that anymore, now all I care about is people.” I never would have thought that George would say that. I guess we all know people who have these life changing events and get their priorities straighten out. They suddenly realize they’re mortals, their days are numbered and they’ve thought about the fact that their not ready to die, they want to live the remaining portion of their lives differently then the previous. The rest of us smile politely as we listen to the revelation. It doesn’t really sink in, but then sometimes as I walk through the market place I look at people and seem to see a soul. I see a mortal frame but every now and then it strikes me that all of these people are souls with eternal significance. It can be a frightening feeling. So often I treat the people in my life the way that a banker treats money, like and instrument. Don Miller talks about how he feels like people are just actors that enter and exit the stage in a play about his life. When we see the people around us as eternal beings our lives are changed. Listen to this essay from NPR: This I Believe