Catholic Singles

A Difference
BY: MARK ANTHONY ROSOLOWSKI

"Tempus Fugit", inscribed on many clocks, translated from Latin, it means, "Time Flees" or the more common expression, "Time Flies". When we think about it "Time flies" is probably one of the most truthful statements that has ever made. "Time flies", we are born, we live and we die, in a short amount of time, in a flash we are here and then we are gone. It is what we do in that time, that short span we call life that matters.

We wake up and we wonder where all the time has gone. We wish we had done something significant in our lives to set us apart from others. We sometimes feel that now it is too late. I can honestly say I have often wondered that same thing.

I ask myself what did I do in that blink of and eye. What did I do that made a difference? What have I done with God's gifts to me?

I look back and I see myself, I am walking at the City of Newburgh, River Fest, I was working at the hospital, doing a volunteer program where we dressed as Officer Mc/Gruff to teach children the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse. During one of the breaks from wearing the costume, I was walking around with my family; my son was around 5 at the time.

A man came up to me and said "hello", I said "Hi", he followed with, and “You don't remember me do you?" I admitted I had no idea who he was. He looked at my son and said, "Your daddy saved my life", "I am here today because of your daddy." I looked at him again, I had seen so many people as a Paramedic, yet I could not place him.

He continued on, "Your daddy was called to my house because I was sick, after he got there my heart stopped and your daddy was one of the guys that got my heart beating again." My son puffed his chest out and was smiling. The man hugged me and thanked me for saving his life and for giving him more time, as he did there were tears in his eyes. As he walked away he looked at me and said, "God will bless you."

That was many years ago, time is jumbled, time has flown on by, and I have forgotten that encounter until I think, "What have I done with God's gifts?" "What have I done with the time God has given me?" When I ask myself that question the image of that day come clear to me.

One encounter, where I used God's gift, the gift to save a life, made a difference. How many lives did I touch with that one moment in time? That one fleeting minute that meant nothing to me, at the time, it was just my job. But to him it made a difference, to him it made all of the difference in the world, I had saved his life.

I look at my hands, the hands that God worked through, the hands that used the knowledge I had learned to help people, the gift from God. I had returned my gift, I used the gift as He intended. I had made a difference.