Our Rental Cars

 

 

"Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is"

Is that all there is?

Peggy Lee

This has not been a good year as far as loss is concerned. My wife lost her former boss to cancer; she lost her younger brother from a sudden illness which caused his organs to shut down; we have lost friends and classmates. We have been reminded over and over again of the temporal nature of our existence on this orb.

Every year I get older, I realize my body does not function as well as it did the year before. More aches, more pains, more things going wrong. A good friend of mine told me a long time ago, "At fifty, your body is like an old car. Stuff wears out and needs to be replaced." Boy, was he right.

So, as the song goes, is this all there is? When the body wears out, that is it? Because I believe we all have eternal souls, I started to think about our bodies in a different manner. Our souls were made to last forever - our bodies were not. Our bodies are like "rental cars" for our souls to occupy while we are on Planet Earth. Just like at the conclusion of a business trip or vacation, we will turn in our "rental car" when our journey here is over. Our bodies will have served the purpose God intended them to.

Unlike the Peggy Lee song, I do not believe that "this is all there is". I also believe that since our time is limited here on Earth, we have much to do. Love and be loved, serve and be served, bless and be blessed. Every day is our gift, and unfortunately, we don't know if it will be our last. As we know, the number of needs today far outnumber the volunteers. Or as Jesus told us over 2,000 years ago, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (Luke 10:2). That was true back then, and is true today.

So today, just like most days (when I remember), I thank God for another day of life. I try to be mindful of this gift that I have been given. It was given to me for a purpose. Even though my "rental car" is not in the same shape it was decades ago, it still has some miles left in it. My job is to make those miles count while I still have the ability to do so.