Her son had died unexpectedly. One day he was here and the next he was gone.

A father wipes bile from his dying daughter’s face as he whispers in her ear and strokes her face.

A family cries as their loved one lay in a hospital bed and pray for a miracle that will never arrive.

To each of these families and countless others, what is important in life comes into sharp focus when a loved one is dying or has died.

Sometimes there are memories that torture them as they recount silly and inconsequential arguments they had with their loved ones. Maybe they looked back and saw all the time they spent working too hard for too many things and did not spend their time more wisely and on more important things.

Life is too short to waste it on stuff that doesn’t matter.

Could that be one of the problems we have in our churches? We don’t have anything meaningful to do so we start being busybodies. We start fights about most anything.

We argue about the style of worship, the length of the service, the types of songs, the way we serve communion, and other equally ‘important’ things in the kingdom.

Meanwhile, there is a world that is groaning for a glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

I fear that we may be dangerously close to hearing Jesus words in Matthew 7, “`I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'” Matthew 7.21-23

When I am not doing profitable things for the Kingdom of God, I can start thinking some really stupid stuff is important. I need to occupy my time with important things.

Idle hands are the devil’s playground.

Do  you have too much time on your hands?

Is it any wonder that we are fighting among ourselves?

Is it any wonder the world is still steeped in darkness?