A simple and beautiful day, Father! What a gift it has been. Thank You for blessings abundant!
Luke 18:31-34 (<<click here to read the passage)
One of the worst experiences of my life took place many years ago. Karen and I were relative newlyweds, and I was serving as an associate pastor at a good-sized church. I had been on staff for about a year when I was asked by the senior pastor to step down. He gave me no reason as to why. In fact, it seemed to me that it wasn’t even his idea. To this day I don’t know why, and the pastor went to his eternal reward a few years back, so I don’t foresee knowing in this lifetime. And in eternity, it really won’t make any difference at all. Long ago I made peace with the whole sordid incident and after working through everything held nothing against the pastor or the church, for that matter.
In today’s sermon, we talked about mourning and the fact that we benefit from the grief in our lives, even though we try everything within our power to avoid it. I loved a quote I gave. There is an Arab proverb that says, “All sunshine makes a desert.”
We are so much the better for all the heartache and loss in our lives. Our souls would wither without it. I realize that sounds strange but time and again, I believe our distress has allowed us to empathize with someone else’s loss and that in turn allows God to use us, if we will let Him, to touch someone else’s life.
Jesus clearly knew what was ahead and told the disciples so. But they just weren’t getting it. There’s a good chance that every time He spoke to them of His pending death, that that blocked their minds from processing anything else. They simply could not grasp the significance of His words, though He hid nothing from them.
My Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation says that that was the case “until they saw the risen Christ face to face.”
Our heartache, our loss may not make one bit of sense in this lifetime. We struggle and, oh so many times, we just can’t seem to let it go. We grieve and wallow in the all-to-familiar mire of self-pity. It can be extremely difficult to break free from it all but, I can assure you, there will come a day when we too will see the risen Christ face to face. And at that time all of our questions will be answered…or better yet we will realize that no answers are necessary, for Jesus Himself will be the only Answer we need!
Lord Jesus, may we trust in You in the here and now, in the middle of our grief and loss as we eagerly anticipate that day when every tear will be wiped away as we step into Your presence for all of eternity! Amen.
Oct 25th, 2020, Sun, 4:41 pm
