Mahatma Gandhi

Thankful for Being Well

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“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver” (Mahatma Gandhi).

“Health is the thing that makes you feel that now is the best time of the year” (Franklin Pierce Adams).

I’m slowly but surely on the mend. The fever’s gone, the energy’s returning, and the cough . . . well, as the great philosopher Meat Loaf once said, two out of three ain’t bad.

I never fully appreciate my good health until after I’ve been sick. It’s a lesson I have to re-learn over and over. The pattern goes like: 1) me taking my health for granted, 2) me coming down with a nasty fever, 3) me feeling like death warmed over and wanting to hibernate until spring, 4) me finally mending and getting well, 5) me being grateful for my heath– for a little while.

Then I read about someone who’s way more sick than I ever was. Or someone who’s been fighting chronic illness for years. Or someone who’s life expectancy went from years to months or weeks or even days.

In a culture where we have some of the most advanced medical technology and knowledge, it’s the norm to not give a second thought to your health. It almost feels like a given for most of us that we will live out our 80 years in relative comfort.

But lately, it seems like death has touched so many of my friends’ families. Even some of my friends and family. Sure, some lived to a ripe old age, but too many departed this life much too soon.

So, thank you God for my health. I’m grateful for each day, knowing that tomorrow is neither guaranteed nor promised. I will do my best to appreciate and enjoy and savor this one life as much as I possibly can and never take anyone in my life for granted.

 

Good Friday 2017

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“But thank God the crucifixion was not the last act in that great and powerful drama,” King preached. “There is another act. And it is something that we sing out and cry and ring out today. Thank God a day came when Good Friday had to pass” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act” (Mahatma Gandhi).

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime” (Martin Luther).

Why is today called Good Friday? What’s so great about Jesus being tortured to death for a crime He didn’t commit? Why does it still matter nearly 2,000 years later?

It seems weird to call the day of Jesus’ crucifixion Good Friday, but when you look at it with Easter Sunday in mind, it makes a lot more sense.

If all you had was Good Friday with no resurrection, then it’s a very Tragic Friday. We should all stay home on Sunday and live however we want. Get stoned, get drunk, get laid, do whatever because none of it matters if Jesus is still in that tomb.

But God raised Jesus from the dead. He walked out of the tomb two days later and everything changed. Absolutely everything. That’s what makes it good.

So much of what happens in our lives will only make sense in reverse. When God promises to work all things together for our good, we often can only see that good not looking ahead or in the midst of it, but looking back on it. We see then how God orchestrated every moment perfectly to lead us where we are now, the best possible outcome.

 

Palm Sunday

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“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act” (Mahatma Gandhi).

“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song” (Pope John Paul II).

“The gifts of the Master are these: freedom, life, hope, new direction, transformation, and intimacy with God. If the cross was the end of the story, we would have no hope. But the cross isn’t the end. Jesus didn’t escape from death; he conquered it and opened the way to heaven for all who will dare to believe. The truth of this moment, if we let it sweep over us, is stunning. It means Jesus really is who he claimed to be, we are really as lost as he said we are, and he really is the only way for us to intimately and spiritually connect with God again” (Steven James, Story).

So we have reached Palm Sunday, one week before Easter.

That means that in eight days, I can resume my social media activities.

More importantly, it reminds me that Easter and what it represents are never very far away.

Easter is more than bunnies and candy.

Easter is even more than wearing my Sunday best to attend church on Sundays as a kid.

Easter means that even though death doesn’t have the final say. It means that although there is a battle raging around us, it has already been won.

Easter means that there is no such thing as too late, too far gone, or hopeless.

If God could raise Jesus from the dead, there is nothing dead in your life that Jesus can’t resurrect.

Easter means there are no final goodbyes for those who are in Christ.

Easter means that Jesus wasn’t just a good man or a great example to follow but God in the flesh, Immanuel who came near to us who were far away so that we who were dead might live again.

That’s Easter.

 

Easter Sunday 2015

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File Apr 05, 9 15 22 PM

“It is good for us to remember that this stone was rolled away from the entrance, not to permit Christ to come out but to enable the disciples to go in!” (Peter Marshall)

“A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act” (Mahatma Gandhi).

“God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you'” (Billy Graham).

“But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross” (Bono).

For me, Easter is a bit harder to prepare for than Christmas. You don’t have nearly the commercialism of the season constantly reminding you that the day is coming. Also, Easter isn’t on a fixed day every year like Christmas.

Most of all, Easter isn’t quite the feel-good story that Christmas is. You don’t have the cute little infant being cradled by loving Mary as a doting Joseph watches on. You have the gory spectacle of the cross and the death of an innocent Man to deal with.

But you need both, I think. You can’t have the Greatest Story Ever Told without both the virgin birth and the death and resurrection. If Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin Mary, then He’s not qualified to die for anyone’s sins but His own. If He isn’t raised from the dead, then we are still stuck in our sins and just as hopeless as before.

So I love both seasons. More than that, I love how Advent comes before Christmas and Lent comes before Easter, giving us time to prepare our hearts and minds for what it all means.

This year, Easter means that no life is wasted. It means that every life matters and every single person ever born matters to God. It means that your and my identity doesn’t come from honor rolls or bank accounts or resumes, but from Calvary. At the core, who I am is the Beloved of God, who proved that He thought I was worth dying for on that cross.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, there are only 263 days left until Christmas.