Life is as a vapor

I spent two long days in the Emergency Department during my clinical days this week. I am sobered by the fragility of life. I observed the emergent care of a man who suffered a motorcycle accident. Although he was wearing a full helmet, his brain injury is extensive and I am not optimistic about his survival. I want to plead with those of you my friends who ride bikes--please, please watch out of the drivers who don't see you. Please, please wear your helmet.


This fragility of life and my experiences in the hospitals cause me to ponder what role that 'their time' has to do with who lives or dies. I saw a quote in the ICU department that was meant to be funny. It said "Most of the time our patients make it in spite of what we do to them." That makes me think of the role of God in 'taking' people when their days are at an end.


"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'" James 4:13-15