One of the childhood memories that stands out most in my mind is the long weekend road trips or vacations with my family. When we went on long trips we usually took my dad's truck - my two siblings and I would be crammed into the backseat of the extended cab, with bags of books and CD's stuffed next to our feet. I spent a lot of time on those road trips reading (back when I was still able to read in the car), or listening to stories with my headphones and portable CD player. But every afternoon, after we had lunch, my dad would turn on the radio, and I'd take my headphones off as the song "My City Was Gone" by The Pretenders played and my dad jokingly grooved to the tune. That song will always be associated with backseat road trips and the start of The Rush Limbaugh Show for me.
This week Rush died of lung cancer, after putting up an amazing fight for over a year. It may seem silly to some people to get sentimental over someone you only knew through the radio. But when you grew up hearing someone's voice, and spent a couple hours nearly every other day listening to them speak, they become something of a friend to you. So I was very sad when I heard the news and realized I'd never get to hear his hopeful and joyful perspective on things again.
Yesterday I remembered that one day last summer I had taken a screen recording when he said something that was particularly poignant to me. I found it and listened again to what had seemed worth recording months ago. I wanted to share that quote here.
Life is for doing, life is for living, and to come up with excuses to not have to do it...look, life is hard. And sometimes you make it harder by making wrong choices. But life is also precious, and we only get one. Very few people realize the profundity of that. There's only one. And we get a shot at it every day. We get a shot at it. If we goof up one day, we have a chance to fix it the next, if we can set ourselves aside long enough to. That's another thing - most of life is about much more than you or me. Life is about things much larger than yourself, and the sooner you learn that in your life, the much better off you're going to be. If you're unable to escape this prison where you are the center of the universe, and your feelings and your thoughts, then you are never going to get close to maximizing your potential.
-Rush Limbaugh, July 14, 2020
You can listen to the actual clip here if you want:
Our life here is precious, a gift from God. And as long as He keeps our hearts beating, He has a purpose for us - and that is to give Him glory in everything we do, to share the hope of Christ with others, to play our small part in His plan for as long as He would have us do so. This is the thing that's bigger than ourselves. We are here for the tasks He has given us. To share the gospel of Jesus Christ, to raise our families to love Jesus, to show His love to our neighbors, to encourage others, to seek the good of the countries where He has put us.
And sometimes doing those things might seem small or insignificant, but once we realize that life is not about us, they aren't so small. We can't let our own self-centeredness or fears - fear of what others will think about us, fear of death, fear of growing older, fear of failure - keep us from gratitude for this moment God has given us to live this precious life, to bring Him glory in the tasks He has given us, before He calls us home to a life that will never fade away.
His mercies are new every morning. It might seem cliche to say, but waking up in the morning, alive and well, is evidence of God's mercy toward us each day.
Rush said something else every day toward the end that I want to remember. He opened almost every program with "I woke up this morning, and I thanked God that I did." Living in that kind of gratitude, and keeping our eyes on Our Savior for purposes bigger than ourselves - that is what it means to live a life well. I'm thankful for all of my family members who have shown me by example how to do that, and for the years of a midday reminder from good ol' El Rushbo, as The Pretenders played to a fade.
So funny, I was telling my parents the other day that I can’t hear Rush’s name without thinking of all our roadtrips from
Nevada to California when I was elementary-aged. His voice was the soundtrack of my childhood! I feel like I’m a kid again just thinking of his theme song. Memories!!
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