Sunday, January 08, 2012

Gene Seehusen - Three Short Months

My cousin, Gene Seehusen passed away this week.

When I think of Gene, I smile; his beautiful smile made everyone smile! Older than me, more the age of my oldest sister and brother, I didn’t grow up knowing him well. But I knew enough. Talking to him over the years, I found out that he and his wife Carol had a deep and profound faith.

Gene and Carol belonged to the same church as Judi’s Mom and Dad in Golden Valley. One Sunday while visiting Mabel and Marinus, Judi, the kids and I attended church with them. Gene and Carol had been greeters at a different door than we came in. They sat down behind us and were wearing their name tags. Our son Andy grabbed a hold of my arm and said, “You aren’t going to believe this but there are Seehusens sitting behind us.” We ended up having a friendly, unexpected visit.

Gene died just three months after my brother Jim died. Gene and Carol had attended Jim’s funeral. We found out shortly after that that Gene had pancreatic cancer. Cancer seems to haunt this part of the Seehusen clan especially hard.

I got to thinking, would we live any differently if we knew we had only three months to live? What about three weeks? Three hours? Three minutes? Three seconds?

If we would live differently, why aren’t we living that way now? We are not guaranteed three more seconds, much less three months.

In James 4:13-15 (NIV) it says: “Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Let’s remember Gene by living in the moment; being ready to go and be with Christ at a moment’s notice. Let’s live out the Lord’s will in our life whether we have three minutes or three months. Today is the day of salvation.

Blessed be the memory of Gene Seehusen.

No comments: