Are You Ready?

I will be traveling to Lancaster, PA again this week, this time to pay my respects to the family of my dear cousin who passed away suddenly at a very young age.

How sad, and how sobering. We must be ready at any time. I can't help but recall a very powerful message we heard recently at church from a guest-speaker, Rev. Keith Fiveson. Reverend Fiveson is an InterFaith Minister, a term which is new to me, but as I understand it, means they embrace all religions. His voice can really project, and he is quite tall, so he made an impressive impact as he approached the lecturn and immediately began with a booming, "Are you ready? ARE YOU READY? Well, are you? Ready? I mean, really ready? Are YOU ready?"

Both his vocal flection and fluctuation were amazing. At first, I thought he lingered too long on this phrasing and I almost became annoyed, but after much thought, I believe I was not annoyed, but in fact, unnerved or uncomfortable, and I'm still learning that when I'm affected in this way, if I look deep inside myself, I will find this feeling is often prompted because there's something very important there for me to learn, and I can greatly benefit by investigating further. To this day, I can't quite shake Mr. Fiveson's haunting version of this question. How 'bout you?