On Wednesday, September 30th, many Highlanders donned pink in observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October). Last October, I would not have thought twice about that day, except perhaps to laugh at the men running around in pink shirts thinking that it makes a difference. Last October was just another month on the way to Christmas break, a month full of pumpkins and crisp air, but this October is different.  This October I cannot help but ask if we do enough. I ask, “If we were really aware of how fragile our lives are, wouldn’t we wear pink everyday?” Cancer, not just breast cancer, has a way of wrecking lives in the blink of an eye.

I was painfully reminded of this fact this past summer. On June 3rd one of my dear friends, a fellow Cairn alumni, actor, and musician (to name only a few of her many remarkable endeavors) was diagnosed with a deadly colon cancer. I was away in upstate New York and so I was not able to be there with her when I heard the news. I told myself I would follow up, but as the summer went on and each day became busier, I relied on my “there’s always tomorrow…” mindset. I returned to PA and got wrapped up in moving into a new apartment, starting graduate school and beginning a new job. The pictures on her Facebook told me time was running out but I still kept saying, “There’s always tomorrow.” Before I knew it, a month had passed since I returned to Cairn and I was attending her funeral with no more tomorrows to lean on.

I hope and pray that you do not make the same mistake I did by saying “there’s always tomorrow.” If you feel the urge to reach out and encourage others, there is no better time than the present. Deborah Feix, Office Coordinator for the Office of Student Life, understands this. The day before Breast Cancer Awareness at Cairn she sent an email out to the staff saying she felt moved to encourage them to raise awareness. When asked why she felt moved she shared:

“Breast cancer runs in my family as well as a few other types of cancers… [and] My husband and I had two scares with both of our daughters…[when our daughter was told something was found]…Things started moving and shaking with her doctors and the hospital all in one day before we could even think about what was happening…”.

When she shared, Deborah was thinking of her loved ones, friends, and Cairn family that were taken away or scarred by cancer. She could not wait for tomorrow because she knew tomorrow might be too late.

The time to act is today, for none of us know what life will be like tomorrow. It only takes one phone call, one Facebook post, or one email to shatter our material world. We must consider the ever present possibility that we ourselves might not be in the world tomorrow. But there is hope for the future. There is hope in the salvation of Jesus Christ, the great Lord and Savior who will “wipe away every tear” (Revelation 21). But until we reach that day, we need encouragement. We can find this encouragement in the Word and promises of Christ, but sometimes those words seem so far away. Sometimes, the greatest expression of Christ’s love for us comes through the vehicle of our fellow men: our friends, our family, and, every once in awhile, complete strangers.

The irony is that the phone call, Facebook post, or email that bring our world down are the same instruments that can be used to share the encouragement we so desperately need. It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a reminder that we are mortal and that we need encouragement. So go, don pink to raise awareness but do not stop there. Show your awareness through acts of love. It only takes one phone call to tell your parents that you love them or an email to brighten a friend’s day. You can write a letter or leave a note of encouragement in a fellow Highlander’s mailbox, even a Highlander that you have never met. Everyday there are a myriad of opportunities to express the love that Christ has shown to you. I just pray that you would seize those opportunities today instead of tomorrow. If we are aware that we are mortal, yet all we do is wait, are we truly aware of our mortality? Last October, my awareness was passive at best. This October, I pray my awareness will be an active force that drives me to share the love of Christ with others. Otherwise, I do not believe I am truly aware.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

-John 13:34-35 (NASB)