Today marks one year. It may seem insignificant to an awful lot of people, considering I never had met the lady that died that September morning in 2010.. but it will forever be a day imprinted in my mind. And I pray that I’ll always remember it like I do now.

Not that I enjoy remembering it.. because I definitely don’t. But I know it’s important.

See.. it’s no accident that I was running late that morning. Not too late, just about 2 minutes behind schedule for where I wanted to be at that point in the morning. Just late enough. Had I not been running 2 minutes late, I completely believe I’d probably not be here today.

If I’d not been running late, I would have been directly in the path of the lady that took out our mailbox and hit our tree. Knowing that the impact killed her.. and knowing the place I sit at the end of my driveway as I wait to pull out onto the road.. it would have meant the end of my life on earth.

And while, yes, I’m excited for heaven, I know there are things I’m supposed to be doing here and now. This is reiterated to me over and over.. in the ways I see God at work in the difficult times as well as in the sunshine days.. in the smiles and encouragement of others in both of those types of days.. in the fact that I am still here today.

I could sit here and wonder at what it is God has for me to do.. or I could just get out there and do it. So maybe I don’t know every little thing He’s got planned for me. Maybe it doesn’t matter that I don’t know though. Maybe what He wants isn’t so much that I figure it out in just the perfect way, but more that I seek to follow Him throughout it all. Maybe the most important part of it is living so intentionally for Him, letting everything I do speak of Him and shine Him to others, so that anyone I come in contact with can’t help but notice that I am His. They will see there’s something different. They’ll see the purpose in my life.. and that purpose is to live solely for, with, in, and through Him. And to let Him radiate through my every word and action.. through my every breath.

And so as I pray for the family that I know is missing their grandmother, mother, wife, friend, etc, I want to keep in mind that even though I may never understand until heaven, I’m still here for a huge purpose. God’s not finished with me yet.

In the midst of living for God, though, I don’t want to get caught up in doing things for Him. I don’t want to get so distracted that I forget to wait on Him and listen, and follow as He leads. Tricia Goyer made this comment a couple of days ago, and it so caught my attention: “It is easy to do things for God. The harder thing is sitting before Him and saying, ‘Lord, what’s on Your heart?'” Yet.. taking the time to be still before Him, asking Him that hard question, listening for His answers, and making the sometimes even harder choice to put into action what He shows us.. this is so essential if we’re to truly live with our Creator at the center of our lives.

I want my life to revolve around Him. In every way. This is the only response I really can have to His choosing to bless me with life – with life at all, with continued life when I was within 2 minutes of the end of life on earth last September, and with the blessings He gives me throughout my life. It’s the only response I can have to His amazingness.