Never Too Soon (09/12/2025)

“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” This Ralph Waldo Emerson quote is one I think of often in the course of my week. But yesterday, it hit me really hard. The remembrance of the nearly 3000 individuals (mom, dads, siblings, friends, daughters, and sons) who never made it home that September day 24 years ago reminded me again that we do not know what the future brings, so we must use the present to love well.

Our world is experiencing a great war between good and evil, between love and hate. This past week we have been reminded of it numerous times between the 9/11 remembrance ceremonies, the news of Charlie Kirk’s assassination in Utah, the death of a young Ukrainian immigrant on a train in Charlotte, and the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza. We have no promises of our future, we only have Christ’s promise that He is with us always. And it is so clear this morning that we must seize this day and every opportunity we have to fight hate and evil the only way we can, with love that is stronger.

Today let us call that person that we know is struggling and just tell them we’re thinking of them. Today let us send a card to that person we know is walking in grief since the loss of her beloved spouse. Today let us open the doors for others physically at the grocery store but also emotionally by volunteering our time to help others who are challenged beyond our understanding by financial burdens. Today let us seek out the one with whom we have a strained relationship and seek to ease that strain through authentic concern and loving kindness. Today let us seize any and every opportunity we see those before us and to love well because tomorrow may be too late for the other or for us.

We know that love is stronger than hate and that good is stronger than evil. We know this. So, we must do this, today and every day. Love well now, in the moment. We cannot do a kindness too soon.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.