This post is starting on a bit of a dark note. woot woot. Ready? Let’s go…

My uncle is dying. He’s taking stock of his life. He looks at me through wet eyes, stern as can be. I can hear the morphine in his voice, shaking and a little slick.

“Most people spend their life worshiping the wrong things. I spent my life worshiping the wrong things. Please don’t spend your life worshiping the wrong things!!”

Well now, what is that supposed to mean!?!?

So I have been sitting with this question, what do I give worship to? What do you give worship to? What do you make sacred? What are you seeking or aching after? What belief or god or relationship or shiny object do you make important over another?

Scan some magazine covers and we see our culture’s worship of slick tanned forms and celebrity and fast cash and flashy cars.

What a bunch of bullshit.

It ain’t so hip to talk about death. Bring up your dying uncle at a party and feel the buzz seep out the cracks under the door. But man what a gift some hindsight insight can be coming from a dying man.

So I find myself listening to the moment a more clearly, pausing before answering a question, snuggling in bed longer, meeting eyes more honestly, tasting my tea fully, breathing in the afternoon, looking for moments to make sacred with tender worship.

If we look at what we deem important and ask ourselves this question:

“looking back when I am eighty, cuddled up to death, will this matter?”

The answer should be clear.