A friend died 3 weeks ago today. Or as it said on her memorial card, it was on September 21 that she "entered eternal life." She had been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of uterine cancer just 10 weeks prior. Before she died, I spent an afternoon helping out with some things at her home. As I saw signs of a wife and mom's typical work-in-progress--a grocery list, stacks of paperwork to go through, laundry to sort--it really hit me that when she was diagnosed she had to just leave things in her house and at her job as they were and plunge right into surgery and chemotherapy. She was never up and around after that. It was like "Time's Up" was called and that was that. To use the school analogy, it was time right then to turn her paper over and put her pencil down. She couldn't do anything else. Time to let everything be either finished or unfinished. And at that point what really mattered but her relationship with God and her husband and three daughters? Not laundry that didn't get folded or remodeling that never got done, none of that mattered a bit. She was obviously a person who had focused on finishing the right things while she was alive. About 700 people were at her funeral. I'm quite sure each had a story to tell about how she had touched their life. Here is the verse that was on her memorial card: And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8