What have we gained from it all?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how most of the people
I know are so busy.  I've just been noticing more and more
that friends who were at one time pretty easy going, and
always seemed to have time to talk or get together, just
don't have the time anymore.  I was talking to another brother
in the Lord recently and he's been noticing the same thing
with people he knows.  Everyone's so busy that they don't
seem to have the time to do the simple things of life anymore.
There's less peace and more strain.  Are we just rushing
from thing to thing and not realizing how foolish it really is to
live like that? 

My mom died of cancer a couple years ago and one thing
that she said really stuck with me.  We were in a grocery store
one day and she noticed how stressed and rushed so many
of the people seemed to be.  She told me she used to be like
that, but after being diagnosed she saw the futility of it all.  She
told me the difference between her and the people that she
saw racing around, was that she knew her time was almost up
here and how precious life really is.  It's worth the time to slow
down.  Constantly being preoccupied and busy robs us of the
quietness we need to think, to ponder  The great paradox
that I saw with Mom was that even though she was running out
of time here on planet earth, she started to slow down and live
like she had all the time in the world.  She took in the flowers
at spring and noticed things we just passed by.  When talking
with her, you had the sense she wanted to hear every word
you had to say, and there was no place she'd rather be than
right there with you.  Sometimes I could see her taking me all
in, or looking up at the sky and absorbing it all like a big
sponge.  She was dying, but in many ways I'd never seen
her so full of life.  She embraced it, treasured it, took it all in.
Only a month or so before she died, we walked out of
Walmart on a beautiful spring day.  I watched her look up into
the sky, take a deep breath of the spring air, and say, "What
a glorious day!"   She taught me one of the most priceless
lessons, and I'm passing it on to you.  Life is short, and too
precious, to just let it pass us by.

But if this life is too precious to just let it pass by, how much
more are we missing out on if we fail to live for eternity?  Jesus
said, "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul?"   Life is too short to make this world your goal!
The best lived life soon ends, and then what?

The great tragedy is that Jesus is wanting to spend time with us
but we think we have "better things to do". 

How can we take this most precious of treasures and just walk
on by?  Jesus is speaking from heaven, are you too preoccupied
with this world to hear the voice that speaks of eternity?  Soon
you will be there and what will this world be to you then?  How
the devil loves to keep us distracted by that which will soon be
gone.  Jesus is your greatest treasure.  How He longs to walk
with us "in the cool of the day".  What could be better than that?