What Keeps You Going?

We sometimes get in a rut. Sometimes we get tired of doing the same thing every single day. That is human nature.

I was at that stage. At the end of the school year, the complaining started because I was "tired" of what I was doing every single day. I did not look at the bigger picture, but instead was consumed in the hours of studying and meetings I needed a break from.

I remember the first day at orientation sitting down and talking with a few employees. I was expecting to hear they had been there a couple of months or a couple of years, but everyone I talked to said they were going on their 10th, 15th, 24th year at Children's....Yep for many wondering that is more years than I have been alive.

My next question was simple....What keeps you going?

I write down everything, and his response was simple. The people. He went on to describe the lives of the people he has been able to make better. These memories keep him going.

This past week at a meeting they showed the story of a young girl. She was diagnosed with stage four cancer. The doctors found a large tumor behind her liver. It spread quickly, but thankfully the doctors were able to stop the cancer from spreading for the meantime through chemotherapy. She was not done however. She had a relapse and went through a second round of chemotherapy. After excruciating treatment, she was singing and full of life, grinning from ear to ear.

Watching that story, I went back to thinking about my colleague's answer on what kept him going. It is stories like this young girl that keep employees at Children going.

I was driving home this week from work reminiscing on this story. I could not help but ask what kept me going?

You see life is precious. I remember graduating elementary school, thinking I was all cool in middle school and saying good-bye to my parents as they drove off at the University of Georgia. The crazy thing is all these moments feel like yesterday.

With this short amount of time we have on this Earth, we are called to have a sense of urgency. This sense of urgency is for the people around us. Similar to the response my colleague had earlier, we are here for other people.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says it best.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away."
We are here to serve God who has loved us so much and thus love others in that same genuine and authentic way.

Next time you may be in a rut remember the stories you have heard like the young girl's above. Remember that we called to be here for others and love one another. In the end, that is what should keep us going.