Friday, July 5, 2013

Shooting from the Hip

  For once, I really don't have a topic on the top of my mind today.  I'm still getting back into the swing of things after being in vacation mode.

  Last night I got home and realized I had to clean my back yard of my dog's shit.  Well, I turned the corner into the back yard of my house and realized the grass was over a foot tall.  Nevermind finding my dog's shit, I couldn't even see the lawn!!!

   Spent over a half an hour cutting through that swath.  My lawn mower cut out a couple times, I had to go through it all slow and repeatedly.  At least I found the shit... after I mowed it pretty good.

  I could have it worse though.  There's so many people in High River right now who don't even have a lawn to go back to, much less mow.  I keep reading about the disaster they have to return to.  So many are being let back to their homes now, there's virtually nothing left.

  Perhaps water is worse than fire in some ways.  With fire everything's gone except the foundation, and you begin anew.  Right now, even the foundation is suspect.

  I've never had to deal with this kind of thing.  I can't even imagine what they're going through.  I have co-workers who lived there who are now bunking at their family's homes.  I'm reading of people who are now camping out in trailers, and temporarily being sheltered in hotels.

  It's intense.

  And yes, I could give you Bible verses, doctrine and explanations to help put this all in a spiritual mindset.  There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't think that's what's needed at this time.  Certainly not while so many are grieving.  Some have even lost their lives in these floodings.

  The best thing I could possibly share from the Bible is this;

  When Lazarus died, and Jesus came home to his friends and family all mourning his death.  He did not wax "spiritual" to them and tell them of a better future that awaited, or drone on about how this was God's plan or any of these things.  He did the most uncharicteristic thing you would expect the Son of God to do... The very man who could command life, death, and everything in between...

Jesus weeps.

  There can be no better example for the man of God.  When people hurt... hurt with them.  Even cry with them.  Life may be temporary, we may be headed for glory - but it does not diminish the significance of our experiences.  Nor does it remove the need for those of who can, to comfort those who need it.

John 11:32-45

32 Mary, then, as she came where Jesus was, perceiving Him, falls at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if Thou wert here, my brother would not have died!"
33 Jesus, then, as He perceived her lamenting and the Jews coming with her lamenting, mutters in spirit, and disturbs Himself.
34 And He said, "Where have you placed him?" They are saying to Him, "Lord, come and see."
35 Jesus weeps.
36 The Jews, then, said, "Lo! how fond He was of him!"
37 Yet some of them said, "Could not this One Who opens the eyes of the blind man, also make it that this man should not be dying?"
38 Jesus, then, again muttering in Himself, is coming to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was laid on it.
39 Jesus is saying, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, is saying to Him, "Lord, he is already smelling, for it is the fourth day."
40 Jesus is saying to her, "Did I not say to you that, if ever you should be believing, you should be seeing the glory of God?"
41 They, then, take away the stone. Yet Jesus lifts up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hearest Me.
42 Now I was aware that Thou art hearing Me always, but because of the throng standing about I said it, that they should be believing that thou dost commission Me."
43 And, saying these things, He clamors with a loud voice, "Lazarus! Hither! Out!"
44 And out came he who had died, bound feet and hands with winding sheets, and his countenance had been bound about with a handkerchief. Jesus is saying to them, "Loose him and let him go!"
45 Many of the Jews, then, who come to Mary and gaze at what Jesus does, believe in Him.

No comments:

Post a Comment