Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday July 6, 2011

Life: Too Short To Be Ordinary

Someone asked me if my wife of many years worked at AdvancED, an accrediting agency with her office at Indiana State University. I answered thusly, "Actually, The Great Blonde presides over the AdvancED office, though she is not the official 'presider.'"

She was fussing around the computer the other day in an attempt to find an obituary of one of her associates from the college. The obit did not appear until the following day.

Dr. Kay Harmless was what anyone would call, accomplished, and from a family of high achievers, with a few generals etc in the father and brother in law part of the family. I met Kay on one or two occasions and she was nice lady, though younger than Joyce and me.

The obit listed Kay's life defining statement as:

"Life is too short to be ordinary."

I have been thinking about this line for several days and a thought dawned on me that one of the problems with our current society is that too much emphasis is put on learning how to struggle back up the mountain to the "Ordinary Peak."

From what I have learned of Dr. Harmless she overcame some real obstacles during the course of her life, but remained a down to earth person deeply interested in helping folks get a boost up on life and invested a tremendous amount of her life in her children, grandchildren and the Indianapolis Children's Museum, among other projects. Dr. Kay embodied the principle which states, "The best thing to do with your life is to invest it in something that will outlast it."

It is easy to slip into the malaise addressed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:12:

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

The mountain climber in life understands that while the current point may be the highest others have reached; I can climb higher than I have before. My previous best is not acceptable because life is "too short to be ordinary."

No doubt about it.

Larry Lilly Copyright (C) 2011 Use with credit

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