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Life’s Too Short…

Published by Rick Meigs on August 14th, 2007 in Missional.

I once read the biography of Phillip Brooks (”Phillips Brooks, 1835-1893: Memories of His Life with Extracts from His Letters and Notebooks,” E.P. Dutton and Company, New York, 1907). One of his quotes is, “Forgive, forget. Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours. Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious.”

As I get older, I’ve begun to realize that I don’t have many years left and have begun to think more about that phase Brooks used, “Life is too short.” Why waste time on things that are not important, useful or profitable? Then I ran across an article in today’s newspaper about people who are making “Life is Too Short” lists. A couple of my favorites were:

  • Life is too short to drink cheap beer.
  • Life is too short for reading inferior books.

As a Jesus follower committed to a missional life, I decided to start my owe “Life is Too Short” list. Here are my first five items on that list.

  • Life is too short for indulging self.
  • Life is too short to argue about Biblical trivia and secondary “Church doctrines.”
  • Life is too short to be so consumed in my own activities that I don’t have time to stop and look around to see what the Father is doing.
  • Life is too short not to meet my neighbors and build community and relationships.
  • Life is too short to waste time building and maintaining institutions.

What would you add to this list? Go ahead, jump in and leave a comment.

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18 Responses to “Life’s Too Short…”

  1. wilsonian
    August 14th, 2007 at 2:48 pm

    Life is too short to be stingy with love.

  2. Rick Meigs
    August 14th, 2007 at 3:16 pm

    Good one wilsonian. Thanks.

  3. Ted Ancelet
    August 15th, 2007 at 5:19 am

    Life is to short to not be intentional with the legacy I leave for my children

  4. Webb
    August 15th, 2007 at 6:40 am

    Ann Lamott says her father’s theology simple and consisted of two points: Feed hungry people and don’t be an a**hole.

    I like it. Life is too short to not feed hungry people or for being an a**hole.

    Hungry people not only have shorter lives, but the life they have must seem painfully long. Just imagine if we all fed them!

    When it comes to a**holes, they waste much of our time, making our lives even shorter for doing the worthwhile things we could be doing with the short time we have to do them.

    Good to see you on here stirring my brain again, bro. ;)

  5. Brother Maynard
    August 15th, 2007 at 7:02 am

    …to drink bad wine.

    …to replace wonder with certainty.

    …for delay.

  6. joe
    August 15th, 2007 at 7:09 am

    Life is too short to take yourself so seriously.

  7. Rick Meigs
    August 15th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

    Thanks Ted.

  8. Rick Meigs
    August 15th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

    Ah Webb, the wisdom of our fathers is always so profound and put in such philosophically deep language.

  9. Rick Meigs
    August 15th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    Bro, I agree with #1 as long as bad is defined as anything except a good Oregon Pinot noir. ;-)

  10. Rick Meigs
    August 15th, 2007 at 12:37 pm

    Joe, I don’t know about that one. Life may be too short not to take it and the misso dei seriously.

  11. brad brisco
    August 15th, 2007 at 1:03 pm

    I tell my kids often that life is too short to grumble.

  12. brad brisco
    August 15th, 2007 at 1:15 pm

    I also heard a message by John Ortberg once that has stuck with me for the past several years that was titled: “Life is too short to carry a grudge.” He contrasted the “way of Lamech” in Gen. 4:23-24 which is about revenge and the “way of Jesus” highlighting Mt. 18:21-35 which of course is about the way of forgiveness.

  13. Rick Meigs
    August 15th, 2007 at 7:42 pm

    The carrying a grudge one is nice Brad, but I must grumble once in a while particularly when a mole is digging up my lawn and garden!

  14. brad grinnen
    August 16th, 2007 at 6:56 am

    life is too short to hide from everyone with my false self.

    brad

  15. Rick Meigs
    August 16th, 2007 at 7:16 am

    Nice one Brad. And I bet you could also say that life is too short to ignore orphan kids in Bulgaria.

  16. brad grinnen
    August 16th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    absolutely rick!

  17. Paul
    August 20th, 2007 at 11:50 pm

    life is too short too…

    shave

    shower

    blog

    ;)

  18. Duncan McFadzean
    August 25th, 2007 at 11:51 am

    to spend time complaining and arguing

    to not make the most of every opportunity, whatever that means

    to join committees

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