You’re Either Busy Living or Busy Dying!

That comment….”you’re either busy living or busy dying” was shared with me by a dear friend of mine in Atlanta. She was an ER doctor at Grady Memorial Hospital, which if you’re from Atlanta, you know is known as a huge trauma center in the southeast. It’s been said that if you had gunshot wounds or were in a terrible car accident, and you ended up at Grady, then you were in good hands.

It was not uncommon for my friend to work long, 60-hour work weeks at Grady. And when she wasn’t working, it was hard to find her. She’d be training for an Ironman triathlon, or working at a free women’s clinic, or even traveling to Africa with Doctors Without Borders. I really loved spending time with her, but I admitted one day that “the things I love most about you, are also the things I hate.” You see, those amazing things she was doing outside of the work, were also taking her away from me.

So what how did she respond? That’s where I heard the “busy living or busy dying” phrase, which I learned later on came from the movie Shawshank Redemption, where two convicts are talking about breaking out of jail. My friend taught me that life is worth “living” … and there’s no time to wait around, pondering about “dying”.

This week’s assignment is to read Chapter 2 of our book, The Last Arrow, where our author touches on that same subject. John Ramey leads us this week. The chapter is an easy read….but remember even if you don’t have time to read, still come to the Zoom meeting! You’ll always get something out of the time together.