Day 20 – All the days of my life;

Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

On a summer day,  many years ago, Franklin Keith White was born. Many years from now (hopefully), God will call him home and he will pass away. He will leave behind family and friends. He will have had a great life full of blessings, laughter, good times and bad. He has run the good race, fought the good fight but now he will be be with family that has gone on before him, waiting for the rest of his family and friends to join him there.

His tombstone will read….“Here lies Keith….Wish you were here. Roll Tide!”

I have to tell you, that first paragraph was tough. Thinking about your own obituary, your own headstone, that’s a game changer. Thinking about walking toward God to talk about the life that you lived is overwhelming. Just thinking about all the missed blessings because I did what I wanted, not what God wanted for me is hard to imagine.

Our first breath, is God’s gift to us. What we do from that moment, until the day we breathe our last, is our gift to God. I know I have kept God busy. I know there will be a lot of Him saying “You did what again? Why would you do that?”

We take life for granted, not just for ourselves, but for those we love. In just the past 2 weeks, two of my friends have lost their dads. I can remember Father’s day 2013 calling my dad who had company over then. I told him Happy Father’s day, I love you, go get with your company and I’ll call you in a few days.

That would be the last conversation I had with him.

All of the days of his life, were over. One day, mine will be too.

James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 

I want those days between my first and my last breaths to matter. I want to know when I am standing before God, that I made a difference. I want to hear Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant”.

Years ago, Steph and I did youth ministry together at a church close to our home. We connected with those kids. We shared our lives with them. Today we get to see some of the fruits of our labors. Most are now married with families of their own. Most have graduated college and gone on to their careers. Some are in ministry working with youth as we did. They are paying it forward making the difference that we made in their lives.

II Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

When “All the days of my life”  are over, I want to walk in the pearly gates, hug my 2 kids, and hold my head high with no regrets and soak it all in.

Wish you were here….

Keith

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGeOyViX5cI%5B/embedyt%5D

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Day 19 – Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

I moved to Atlanta October 31, 1998. My apartment was a one bedroom in a suburb in northeast Atlanta in Dunwoody, a place I had been many times before. The place that I would call home for the next few years was on the ground floor and I was less than half a mile from 400, one of the busiest highways that I had ever been on at that time.

Day 18 – My cup runs over

Psalms 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Each weekday, my routine is about the same. My alarm goes off early enough for me to hit the snooze button about 4-5 times. I get up and get ready to go to work. I get the boys up to get ready for school. I grab my water cup, my power aid and my juice drink to take to work to have with breakfast later on. All of my drinks have lids so that I don’t spill them out everywhere on the way to work.

Fast food lids on drinks are about useless…

Day 17 – You anoint my head with oil

Psalms 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

There are a lot of things that I can think about when you hear the word oil. Several years ago, the disaster in the gulf dumped millions of gallons of oil into the water and devastated the gulf coast. Any time you have fries at McDonalds, they are cooked in cooking oil. When you get that sandwich at Subway, they ask to you want oil and vinegar on it.

I also think of my dad.