Life in Death

When was the last time you got a sincere hug from someone close to you, or at least cared about you? Or when was the last time you were told how special, awesome, unique and loved you are?

Well, consider yourself blessed if you can actually recall, because there is someone in the world who may have never experienced that feeling, or never will again thanks to someone’s actions.

Right now, the world is upside down. You almost don’t even want to turn on the news because it’s just too depressing. Between shootings, murders, riots, crimes and deaths, you almost want to ignore the fact that this world seems to be losing its mind.

Everyone wants to point the finger to someone else, saying that is the fault of XYZ, but what good does that do? Because no matter WHO did it, at the end of the day, all these people have the same issue; something rooted deeper in their hearts.

All people have the same basic human needs. And when they are not met in the manner they should be, people will resort to anything to fill the void. Think about it; when you are extremely hungry, you will eat just about anything.

So will someone who is hurting and lonely. They will do whatever it takes to fill that void, that empty space in their life.

But the biggest need to be filled is love. Everything that people seek goes back to that notion of feeling loved. Everyone may not say that it’s love; someone might say “No, I’m just tired of being hurt and taken advantaged of.” Well, if you didn’t love someone enough to trust them and cared about what they did to you, you would not feel taken advantaged of. Or someone might say, “No, I’m just trying to survive in the streets. I gotta do what I gotta do to get what I need.” Well, if there was someone who loved and cared enough to reach out to them, that person would not resort to drastic measures to get their needs met.

My point is this; no matter how we try to disguise it, all of us what to feel loved and appreciated. And so many of us want to believe that someone, somewhere, actually cares. But if no one says anything, how will we know? When all we know is pain, hurt, loneliness and abandonment, what else are you suppose to believe in?

One thing that a lot of my co-workers and friends say about me is that I have a friendly, happy, upbeat attitude. Rarely do people (except those in my closest circle) see me upset and feeling down. If anything, I am the type of person who works to encourage people and make them feel better when they are down, pointing out the good things about themselves. Because, you never know how much that one simple gesture can mean to them.

I keep this in my mind; I may be the last person that someone may ever see before they die (whether by their own hands or another or whatever the situation). Do I want their final memory to be of someone who was cold-hearted and cruel, or could I be the kind, gentle smile and friendly “Hello” that could change their minds and make their day just a little bit brighter?

Especially if I proclain to be a Christian, a lover of Christ, who loved everyone around Him. I John is an entire book of the Bible that constantly reinforces loving everyone else. Or even reading I Corinthians 13, especially verses 4-7. When I read that section, I always replace the word love/charity and put my name in its place. Read that short section and put your name in there and see how true you can really say you live that out.

Spread love and life. Perhaps if we plant more seeds of life into people, we can curb some of the death that is rapidly spreading around the world.

Back in the Arms of The Father

Have you ever lost something precious to you, or important to you? I’ve heard the jokes before; people who lose their keys and tear up the house looking for them, while holding them in their hands. Or the person who freaks out when they think they have lost their phone and are talking to someone over that same phone as they look for it. Or the lady who has her sunglasses on the top of her head as she digs through her purse for it?

We’ve all been there. I know I have. Recently, I lost my recipe book. if you don’t know this about me, cooking is a passion of mine and, in the past month or two, I have been collecting recipes that I have found interesting and tasty in the newspaper that I clip and store in my kitchen drawer. At the start of each week, I take at least one recipe out the drawer and pin it to my cooking board as the experiment of the week. Once I have cooked (successfully) the recipe, I write it down in my notebook for future reference. Last week, I wanted to find the book to write down two new recipes, but could not find it. I ripped my apartment up searching for it, but after several days, I had no luck. Only two days later did I find it in my briefcase for work (don’t ask me why or how it ended up in there).

I say all that to say this; when you lose something important to you, you do whatever it takes to find it and restore it. You hold on tight to it once it is found.

Doesn’t God do that when we return to Him?

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

Many people hear this verse and instantly think “Oh this is for women in the church” because you mainly do hear women claim to be fearfully and wonderfully made. But if you know about the book of Psalms, you know that the writer is David. So if he was proud to say it, then all men should be proud to admit that God created them to be wonderfully and fearfully made. We are his craftsmanship, his handiwork, his prized possessions…most importantly, his children.

You’ve seen mothers and fathers in the store, when their child has wandered off and gotten lost in the aisles. They run up and down the aisles looking for their child and, when they spot them from a distance, they race down that aisle and grab that child and hold them tight, grateful that the child is OK (even if they are splattered with soup from crashing into the tower of soup cans on aisle 6).

One of my favorite parables in The Bible is The Prodigal Son in Luke 15. That whole chapter is about lost items being found, but something about a person who chose to drift off. The other items started off lost, but the son was with his father, decided that he was big and bad enough to go off into the world, left home and found himself soon lost in the world he thought he could handle. Then, he finally reached a point where he wanted to return home. And guess what? His father EMBRACED him. He didn’t get mad; like that parent in the store, he had been looking around for his child, hoping to see him coming back to him and was so please when he did.

I can relate. I was one of God’s lost children. Oh sure, I thought I knew what I was doing, especially last summer, when I was trying to navigate life on my own. But when I reached that low point around my birthday, I realized that I needed to go home. I had to return to my Heavenly Father, who enveloped me with open arms. And, like the father in Luke 15, he restored me. All that I had lost, God gave me back.

People think that coming home and finding refuge in God is a scary thing; that He is an angry and evil King, glaring down his nose with disgust and hatred on His face as we whimper and quiver at His feet. But it’s not true. God is like a father waiting for his child to return from the store as the streetlights flicker on and darkness settles over the street; He is waiting for us to come back to Him.

God is our Father, and His arms hold us and protect us like a parent should. I’d rather be in the arms of God than the arms of the devil, because the devil will drop you (and it is a long way down when he does).

There really is no place like home…and I’m glad to be home with the Father.