It happened on the
evening of April 14, 1912. The Titanic, the largest ship afloat, struck an
iceberg in the treacherous waters of the Atlantic. Four hours later she sank to
the bottom.
A place on one
lifeboat was reserved for a certain woman. She was just stepping into the boat
when she asked if she could run to the ship’s library to get something. She was
allowed three minutes.
The woman ran
through the corridors of the reeling vessel. Crossing the saloon she caught
sight of jewelry strewn around the floor. Passengers had hurriedly cleaned out
their safes and dropped valuables as they ran. What an opportunity. Wealth
literally at her fingertips!
But she ignored the
jewelry, made her way to the library, snatched a copy of the Bible and ran back
to the waiting lifeboat.
Earlier that day it
may have seemed incredible to the woman to choose a copy of the Bible over
valuable jewelry. But in the face of death, prized valuables became relatively
unimportant, and what may have seemed unimportant became suddenly valuable.
Unfortunately, it
sometimes takes a catastrophe to shuffle our priorities into a sensible order.
But what if in a catastrophe when we never do discover what is truly important.
Lee L. Jampolsky
said, “At least three times every day take a moment and ask yourself what is
really important. Have the wisdom and the courage to build your life around
your answer.”
What if you were to
take Jampolsky’s advice seriously? What if you regularly asked yourself what,
in that moment, was really important, then built your life around your answer?
How different would your life be?
-- Steve Goodier (Life Support System)
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