Life and Death: What is it that scares you?!

Image by Unitopia via Flickr

Most of my post have been about life and how I think most people are not living life to the fullest. But I was thinking the other day that most people instead of focusing on living life to the fullest they worry about avoid death. Whether it is the thought of non-existence or the uncertainty of what happens after we leave this earth we all have a fear of death. But I think there is a difference between thinking about it and letting it consume our thoughts. But worrying so much about it cant be healthy and hinders you from living a happy life. I think that instead we should try to live life with no regrets. Live life so that when it is over the people around us know that we lived life to the fullest and the way life should be lived.
Lots of people believe that if you want to live successful life you must have well paid job, big houses, expensive cars and wear new fashion clothes. But very few people understand that happy life is not what you have in your material world, it is how satisfied you are about what are you doing in your life. Because people are not going to remember everything you had, they are mainly going to remember the type of person you were. You can either be seen as the person who was trying to make it to the top and cut people down on the way up or, the person who was willing to do anything for other people. Which of these people is the one whose going to have more people at their funeral? Which one of these people is going to have more tears cried because they are gone. It goes back to past post about the impact you have on people. Power and wealth only bring happiness when used to serve others. The ultimate success is to live life in a way that will enable you to feel free of guilt when you reach the end of the journey. I think that the world tries to tell us the opposite and that is why we live in a broken world that is constantly looking for happiness. The truth is if we only lived life like we did when we were kids we would be a lot happier. When we were younger we didn't worry about what others thought, or if we had more money than our friends. We didn't worry about dying or happiness because we were happy. Our worst enemies were our siblings and not other countries, war was a card game and not something that effected our everyday live. There were not race issues because the only time we worried about race was when we were trying to beat our best friend around the slide and back. What happened to that way of thinking and all that happiness. We grew up. We couldn't wait to grow up because it looked awesome but now that we are older we waste our lives trying to find happiness in the wrong places. True happiness is in the hearts of children and can still be found there.

I leave you with this final thought. If you believe that you come into the world with nothing and that you'll leave with nothing, you can give away everything you own while you are alive. Give away not only your money, but also your time and energy. Using your resources to serve others is the surest way to find happiness and prosperity. The most difficult hurdle you will encounter on the road to happiness is the leap from self-centeredness-self-interest-to other-centeredness. So what is it that makes you fear death or make you feel your not living life as well as you should? Feel free to comment, I love to hear other peoples opinions.

June 11th

June 11, 2005: I was in Monte Vista, CO. I was on a youth group mission trip with my church and we had done this for several years. As everyone showed up to the church early in the morning we were informed to meet in the auditorium, not aware for what was about to hit us. Once everyone was there my dad, who was a sponsor on the trip, told us about the death of Jacob. It seemed like hours that we all just sat there crying, holding each other, and praying. It was one of the hardest days of my life, knowing that the person who truly taught me how to live life not matter what happens had taught me how to leave this world living life to the fullest. That was the first of only a few nights that I have actually cried myself to sleep.

I didn't know Jacob that well when he first got here but quickly heard stories and witnessed his amazing attitude quickly. One time he kept giving one of the teachers the wrong phone number so that she couldn't call his parents to tell them about him acting up in class. He was always making people laugh and even in the darkest times he was making everyone around him smile. The love that everyone in Anton had for him is unlike anything I have ever seen. When he was at school in a wheelchair I saw some of his friends pushing him around and making sure that he was as comfortable as possible. Jacob never was serious when you asked him questions and I only saw him serious and look scared once when I was sitting with my sister at a basketball and he was telling me about a trip to Houston. But after being diagnosed with cancer he still had the amazing joking attitude and maybe even had a more positive look on life. There are to many stories to tell about Jacob but one story that makes me smile was about one time when he was in the hospital. There was a nurse trying to put his IV in his arm and kept missing, instead of getting mad or something he simply asked the nurse if she should be doing this and that maybe she needed to be flipping burgers.

Jacob was an inspiration to everyone he encounter and changed every ones lives. He is the reason that I try to enjoy every moment of everyday and try to live life to the fullest. He overcame odds and did his best to prove all the doctors wrong. When the doctors told him he would never walk he told them he would walk the stage at graduation and he worked for that goal. Not only did Jacob walk the stage he walked down the rows of seat, up the stairs to the stage, across the stage, down the stairs and back out the door all on his own power. He not only met his goal but he proved the doctors wrong and proved that with God all things are possible. He knew that he could either hate life and be upset about what was going on in his life or he could do what he did and live life to the fullest and make sure that he takes advantage of everyday!

Even people who didn't know Jacob personally were touched by him. I remember our church giving him a "prayer pager" so that every time someone prayed for him they could leave their number and Jacob could know that people cared and were praying for him. It started as just the people locally praying for him and as his story spread there were people all over the nation praying for him. He and his family would even look up all the different area codes in amazement of what God can do and the good in people spread.

Jacob Williams is my hero and inspiration in life. He not only taught me how to live life to the fullest but to die with no regrets. I know that he is looking down on every single person that he influenced and seeing the impact that he had on my life and everyone elses. Everyone that knew him was lucky to have known him and I know that he has had the biggest impact on me that anyone ever has and has taught me a lesson on how to live life.

A few years ago i wrote a song about Jacob titled "Never Goodbye" it can be found on my Myspace page at www.myspace.com/calebloskas . There are two songs on there a funny one title the Oreo Song and then the song about Jacob titled Never Goodbye. The quality sucks on the song and my singing is horrible since I recorded this 2 years ago. So don't listen to the singing to closely. I know that my prayers are going out to the Williams family and everyone who was touched by his life as we remember and celebrate his life 5 years later. We love and miss you Jacob and out lives will never be the same!