"God-be-with-ye" the real Goodbye

No, I am not saying goodbye! But, I had never actually appreciated the meaning of the word. Joyce Rupp has opened my eyes to the depth of the Christian goodbye whether that be at the airport, bus stop, or pouring tears over a casket. When we say goodbye, the Christian is declaring that although we will miss those we love we acknowledge that God will be with them and they will have the loving presence of God to help them through loneliness. I think we also need to be saying a "God-be-with-me" as we also affirm that God remains with us who grieve the loss of those we love.

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deut 31:8

Live within the limits - you are programmed to die!

The Greek God Prometheus felt pity on humans so he did three things to make a different. He took away their knowledge of when they were going to die. No longer did they have any sense of limits. They could now attempt anything. Secondly he placed in them blind hope. They could do anything their hearts desired. Just believe in yourself and the world is your oyster. And thirdly, he took fire from the gods and gave it to humans. With this humans began to become industrious and could achieve many technological things. Humans could now change the conditions in which they lived. (Taken from E. Peterson- Working the Angles)

This is the world we live in. A psyche that has no limits nor boundaries and has a sense of limitless resource. The sense that we can achieve anything we can set our minds to. It is this very attitude that invades other lands and plunders resource. It is this very attitude that is tearing our atmosphere in two. The attitude that is dripping the icecaps into the sea. We will learn regrettably too late that we were not made for such limitless power. God has made us genetically frail so that we may die. God has reminded us in Christ that we cannot save ourselves. So why do we keep living as if we can?

Whirlwind People

Death, the inevitable party pooper is himself a real blight in coming to terms with the extremities of our life. Is the hope that singed hair on burning pyre, tore skin by pawing lion and sat in cold barred rooms alive today? The hope that sings of the other place an eternal dream that dies not here. The way we pray - our existence save, indicative of who we are, shallow, blind, a gust of wind, a whirlwind about to end.

Death is to be feared that is if it comes to someone you love

The death of the one we love must be our greatest fear. I woke up early this morning to a lucid dream of my wife having died in a car crash. Some of us have woken up and found this to be a reality. I assume it was evoked by what I witnessed on the highway to Durban yesterday. A car’s tire burst whilst it was in the fast lane. It shot into the middle verge then spun back into the lane, did a 180 degree turn, over the middle verge and into the lane on the other side. Nobody was hurt, it was unbelievable. On leaving the scene the image of the passenger of the vehicle staring out of the window to see if any oncoming traffic was going to collide with her was stuck in my mind. It was this incident that got me dreaming the way I did. We die, so what, unless it is protracted I think the worst about death is not so much our death and what happens to us, it is the fear of loosing one whom we love and having to pick up the pieces. To all those who have lost loved ones recently, my heart and soul are with you.

Grandmother's funeral today

My wife’s grandmother died. Our weeks holiday interrupted to mourn the death of a generation now gone. She was ready to go, senile and out of character. The indignity of watching her become aggressive and belligerent were not memories one wanted to keep but they are the most current. After her husband died a few years ago all she has been wanting is to go and be with him. She did not want to live any longer. She encouraged family to slowly take away her life’s possessions, one item at a time. There are lists of “what I want” from the expensive crystal to the very last of handbags and brooches. It was as if she was stripped before she died. How difficult it was to go and visit her, she wouldn’t remember you and how easy it was to say, “What’s the point!” The family will gather today to remember her, but we do not mourn her death, that would be a selfish clinging to somebody who had already ‘left the building’ before she died. We instead are remembering how we were with her, we remember our moments and opportunities, some taken some missed. We mourn today the human malady of dying, decaying, the debilitating realization that we are mortal.