Leeann Warren Redeems the Time

Author Unknown
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 4, December 1995

I saw her in August of 1984 and immediately recalled our first meetings. She had been a little girl then, visiting our congregation, and she was shy. That was over a decade ago.

Leeann is now a student at Florida College. She studies hard for her classes, like her peers. And she gets excited about seeing her favorite country music band, like other students. She is witty and enjoys humor, like her classmates. But in one respect Lee Ann is wonderfully different from other freshmen and sophomores at Florida College.

Leeann has progeria, an extremely rare disease that causes rapid aging. There are only 22 known cases in the world, and Leeann is the oldest living female with it. In some cases, progeria causes a child to age as much as 8-10 years for every year lived. Patients rarely live as long as Leeann has.

Leeann is teaching me the meaning of Paul’s statement in Ephesians 5:16 when he urged us to "make the most of your time." I have watched her great desire to learn and to live. She is rarely alone on campus because she actively seeks to be with others. This young lady has determined to squeeze the life out of every day.

It would be easy to do otherwise. To feel that life, maybe even God, has dealt her an unfair blow. To retreat in self-pity. To figure "what’s the use?" To conclude there is no reason to spend time in education if she doesn’t have long to live.

But this little sister is making the most of the time God has given her. She is in class every day her health permits, and she crosses the campus, bookbag on her shoulder, to join all those other students who expect to live decades longer than Leeann probably will. She makes the most of her time on this earth.

Think how many times we excuse ourselves from doing what we could because we don’t have time. We who are older in years say we haven’t many years left to do much for the Lord, so we turn things over to the young. Those of us who are younger in years excuse ourselves, saying our lives are already full of activities and duties and we don’t have much time left to do what needs doing in the vineyards of God. We who are in our middle years claim our lives are too full of obligations to allow us to schedule more. Everyone has little time left to budget for God, for our spiritual growth, for brethren, for a lost world. But I’ve seen Leeann’s life, and I know that excuse "no time left" won’t work.

"Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or wisdom in Sheol where you are going," says the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 9:10. I know a young lady who is a living commentary on that passage, yea, a living epistle. She is making herself better mentally and spiritually, even as her outward body decays.

But, folks, all of our outward bodies are decaying. It may be more evident in Leeann, more rapid. But we’re joining her and everyone else who ever walked and died on planet earth. We all are terminal here. So all of us should be living each day fully, richly, with thanksgiving. Every day brings us closer to God, and home, and eternity.

Thanks, Leeann, for being such a great student-teacher. You’re an inspiration, a hero of mine. I’m glad I was in your class this year.

An admirer.