6
January 2016 • SR
A New Perspective
One of the most significant blessings I’ve received
recently is a new perspective. It’s a new perspec-
tive about life in this world. It’s the perspective
that life in this world is temporary.
I know what you’re thinking: “Pastor Scott, this
isn’t a new perspective.” You’re right. I should
have learned a long time ago that life in this
world is temporary. I mean, it’s blatantly obvious,
isn’t it? Just look around. People die. They disap-
pear. They are no more.
For me, the blessing is that what had been only
head knowledge for so many years is now finally
starting to also become heart knowledge.
I was 50 years old when I lost my father. Before
that, I had not experienced the death of any
close family member. For the last four years, I’ve
been pastoring in North Loup, Nebraska. We’re
an older congregation, so I’ve been performing
many more funerals than when I was pastoring
in Southern California. This Friday we’ll have the
funeral for one of our members who passed
away today. On top of this, for the last two years
I’ve been serving as a chaplain in our local hospice.
The hospice patient I saw today will probably not
be here tomorrow.
Seeing reports of death on TV, on a computer
screen, or in a newspaper reinforces our head
knowledge that death happens. However, seeing
the deaths of my friends, my neighbors, my
brothers and sisters in Jesus, has given me this
newfound heart knowledge. It’s this new perspec-
tive that has become a significant blessing to me.
But why? Why has my experience of losing
precious people become such a blessing to me?
I can’t find any better words to explain it to you
than those of Natalie Faust. Natalie was a Number
Six copy, a Cylon who led a rebel faction in the
Cylon civil war. During the war, their local resur-
rection ship was destroyed, so they could no
longer have their souls placed into a fresh body
upon their death. In this sense, the Cylons
became just like us humans: they became mortal.
Natalie described it this way:
"In our civil war,
we’ve seen death. We watched our people die.
Gone forever. As terrible as it was, beyond the
reach of the resurrection ships, something began
to change. We could feel a sense of time. As if
each moment held its own significance." *
This is what my new perspective has taught me.
Because those we love will not be with us forever
(in this world), each interaction we have with
them is significant. I’m trying to start viewing
each encounter with people as a unique, non-
repeatable event. This new perspective is helping
me to place a higher value on my time with
people. It’s helping me to acknowledge and
experience an amazing treasure I always had,
but never appreciated: the richness of connecting
with those people whom God brings into my life
every day.
Thank you, Lord, for this very significant blessing.
— Pastor Scott Hausrath
SDB Church, North Loup, NE
* Battlestar Galactica, season 4, episode 7,
"Guess What’s Coming to Dinner?"
Blessings
“Life in this world is temporary...”
