Perfect Moments -- FPC sermon excerpt
A good meal. A meaningful conversation. A lovely afternoon in the park.
Perfect moments.
That’s what a man named Eugene O’Kelly began to seek after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. At age 53, he seemed to be in excellent health, traveling and working long hours as chairman and chief executive of a giant accounting firm. But then a visit to his doctor revealed that he had an aggressive brain cancer that would kill him in a hundred days.
So, what do you do when you receive such devastating news? “I had focused on building and planning for the future,” said Mr. O’Kelly. “Now I would have to learn the true value of the present.”
Being a goal-oriented, Type-A high-achiever, he decided to write a book about his experience — it’s called "Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life." We can be glad O’Kelly wrote this book, because he is a man of faith who gives us some valuable advice about preparing for the end of our days. He decides to “unwind” relationships with important people in his life, taking the time to have intentionally final conversations with those who have meant a great deal to him.
He also goes searching for “Perfect Moments” — times of lingering over a fine meal, enjoying a long and deep conversation, taking the time to soak up the beauty of nature over the course of an afternoon. “I marveled at how many Perfect Moments I was having now,” he writes in his book.
Eugene O’Kelly didn’t have much time, so he had to get it right. In many ways he did, turning ordinary experiences into Perfect Moments. Then he died, reports "The New York Times," just as his doctors predicted.
The end is coming for every one of us. But so often we behave as though we are going to live forever. It is critical for us to live with the end in mind, and to learn the true value of the present.
Perfect moments.
That’s what a man named Eugene O’Kelly began to seek after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. At age 53, he seemed to be in excellent health, traveling and working long hours as chairman and chief executive of a giant accounting firm. But then a visit to his doctor revealed that he had an aggressive brain cancer that would kill him in a hundred days.
So, what do you do when you receive such devastating news? “I had focused on building and planning for the future,” said Mr. O’Kelly. “Now I would have to learn the true value of the present.”
Being a goal-oriented, Type-A high-achiever, he decided to write a book about his experience — it’s called "Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life." We can be glad O’Kelly wrote this book, because he is a man of faith who gives us some valuable advice about preparing for the end of our days. He decides to “unwind” relationships with important people in his life, taking the time to have intentionally final conversations with those who have meant a great deal to him.
He also goes searching for “Perfect Moments” — times of lingering over a fine meal, enjoying a long and deep conversation, taking the time to soak up the beauty of nature over the course of an afternoon. “I marveled at how many Perfect Moments I was having now,” he writes in his book.
Eugene O’Kelly didn’t have much time, so he had to get it right. In many ways he did, turning ordinary experiences into Perfect Moments. Then he died, reports "The New York Times," just as his doctors predicted.
The end is coming for every one of us. But so often we behave as though we are going to live forever. It is critical for us to live with the end in mind, and to learn the true value of the present.
posted by Henry Brinton | 1:09 PM
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