Death, Loss, and the Joy Promised in the Morning

   Good morning monsters, As I sit here watching the sun play across my windows I am reminded of one  simple joy we all take for granted, waking up. It is such a blessing to open your eyes and witness the birth of a new day. When we lay down at night we don't dream of not waking up, as we go about our day we don't focus on the millions of ways we could die, for many of us these thoughts never cross our mind. For those of us dealing with chronic illnesses, heart problems, debilitating illness, cancer, death or the thought of death; is our constant companion, he sits down with us, eats at our table, walks with us, looks over our shoulder and perches at the end of our bed. 


    Monster, I am not telling you this to cause you to fear, only to remind you of the greatest possession you have, Life. As we travel through life we lose people along the way, during the course of your journey you will lose someone you love, you will lose a whole host of loved ones. I am sorry monster, I am sorry for the pain and the hurt that you have felt, I am sorry for the pain you are feeling now, I am sorry for the future pain you will deal with later.   Death will come for all of us, but in the midst of this seeming darkness I want you to remember monster, that death though painful is not evil, it is not something to be feared, death has no power over us. 


  By all means, grieve, weep, and honor the memory of your loved one, but in your grief take comfort that it is not the end.  You will be sad, you will grieve there is no shame in this. After all when faced with coming to terms of his own death Jesus wept (John 11:35).
But monster in all your weeping there comes a time to remember that there is joy, there is an end to the pain. As Christians we are given hope. The word refers to death as sleeping, nothing more. "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

   Monster, in your pain know that God is with you. He will comfort you, (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) He will Bless you, (Matthew 5:4) He will heal your broken heart. (Psalm 119:105) and he will be your strength. (Psalm 73:26). Know that this pain and hurt will diminish and you will be left with the love and wonderful memories of having shared even a moment with the one you have lost. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning (Psalm 30:5)


 

  In the church I grew up in we called it a Homegoing Celebration. We took joy and comfort in 2 Corinthians 5:8  which tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I have loved and lost those loves, and in the moment of my grief I was surrounded by people who loved me enough to remind me of these things that I have shared with you. I hope that they bring you peace monster, and shed a little light on your dark time. 

I wish you peace monster.

Hating.... A Global Epidemic

    Hey there monsters. I hope you have been celebrating. Celebrating yourself, and celebrating with others. I know it may seem difficult at first, but the more you share love and joy with others, the more you will experience love and joy in your own life. It is important, love. It is probably the greatest power in the universe, in fact the Word says that it is. (1Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.) 

   The world would have you believe that love is weak. that it is conditional, flaky, transient, untrustworthy, and something that can be earned and revoked. The world is not so good at loving, in fact it seems that the world's favorite pastime is hating. They don't call it hating, that would be too obvious. It is disguised as commentary, humor, blogging, criticizing, joking, laughing, tabloids and entertainment. We wait for people to mess up, to break up, to wear the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, etc. just so we can "discuss" them.  The word "haters" has entered our vocabulary seamlessly and has made itself at home in our daily lives. Go ahead and admit it monster, you have hated on somebody. Maybe you knew them personally, maybe you just watch them on t.v. but somewhere, sometime you have hated! Go ahead and admit it. I know you have, I have too. It doesn't seem so bad when its strangers, or people you really don't like, in fact you can fix it up and say your only talking about their behavior and not them. Fix it up anyway you want. Hating is hating. 

   Just so you know, everything you put out into the world will come back to you! Don't be surprised if someone is hating on you right now.  If you have been hated on you have probably posted some type of rebuttal on Facebook or Twitter, encouraging them to continue hating, to say what they want, it sounds good. It sounds like the right thing to do. We are supposed to accept that people hate us, it has become a badge of honor. It feeds our ego, it lets us know that in a world where people post their every thought and movement, someone, somewhere is envious of you. Shame monster, shame.  Take a look at what you say about people, about situations, about everything. What you say, becomes what you believe, what you believe you think on, what you think on takes up residence in your heart, and what is in your heart comes out of your mouth. "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man." proverbs 27:19 It is a  vicious cycle.  It is time to break it. 

   You cannot claim to love God, to love your neighbor and be a "hater". It is time to get control of your mouth. I said it! Put a muzzle on it! That's catchy maybe i will put it to music, make up a dance and win a VMA. Just kidding but I still mean it. It is time to think before you speak. Ephesians 4:29 tells us to not let corrupting talk come out of our mouths, Proverbs is full of wisdom about not speaking foolishly about others, the New Testament is overflowing with verses that teach us how to love and talk and treat each other. It is time to put all that teaching into practice. 

It starts with you, go from being a hater, to a lover. Speak kindness or remain silent. Don't join in the global epidemic of hate, be the cure.