Ordinary Ressurections

I love the stories I hear about resurrections in peoples lives. Those stories that speak of God at work in lives to bring about new life. I suppose there are stories of other kinds of resurrections too. My computer's hard drive died a week or so ago....I had the blue screen of death when I walked in my office one morning and it was all gone! As I began to recount what I wish I would have backed up...I learned our server backs up the hard drive...so a new hard drive and 10 days later, I'm back up and running.

A friend of mine is in the midst of celebrating a new life. She had suffered from depression and basic inertia (forces that are at work to prevent movement, sometimes called laziness) for many years. Really she just kind of existed in life for about 10 years, all the while claiming to be "fine." Her health deteriorated as she was morbidly overweight and had high blood pressure and was a heavy smoker. She had a mild stroke about two years ago and life began to change. She quit smoking, she lost 100 lbs and is moving into a new house soon. Underneath all of these changes is the witness of God at work in her life. A relationship that has gone from asking questions to seeking answers, from inertia to dancing. She truly has an entirely new life!

I have found that when profound events come into our life, be that health issues, or relationship issues, divorce, employment, death...we have a choice. To run away from them - remaining confused and in pain about them, or we can run into them - asking questions, seeking answers, changing our lives in ways that are lasting and meaningful. Thankfully my friend ran into her life.

Each of us suffers from our own kind of inertia. Those things we know we need to do, those things we suspect we need to do, and the things that others are gently trying to tell us we need to do. That is the how the voice of God comes to us, in the still small voice of our mind, in the loving words of someone else. Each leading us into a relationship that is greater than what our human minds can imagine. Leading us into an ordinary resurrection....

So where have you had an ordinary resurrection this year, this month, this week? Or where do you need to begin on the road to a new life? taken one step at a time it leads to that resurrection I speak of. Sharing your story might start someone else on the road...and really isn't that what sharing our faith is about?

Hopeless?

We have experienced the loss of two young men in the last week. Both of them dying at their own hands in one way or another. Either an accidental overdose or alcohol poisoning. Both gentlemen had a history of depression and struggles in this life. And in the midst of these last two weeks, at some point they lost their hope. Somewhere, somehow, there was no reason for them to continue to strive in life, but to quit or at least to anesthetize themselves so that their pain was not so acute.

It makes me think of those who are struggling to find their hope and are not going to do anything to take their life. What if we could reach them before it got to complete hopelessness?

As I did one of these funerals, I tried very hard to offer words of hope, but there was such pain and such grief that I really am not sure they were heard or could be heard. So I would ask you, gentle reader, to take a moment and look around you, they aren't hard to spot. A tight or absent smile, their head in their hands, heavy sighs, or a lack of energy. Their hope is waning and you can offer them a sign of hope. A flower? A poem? A scritpure? A pat on the shoulder? A hand on their back that says, "yes you can?" I don't know what it is for you, but you can take a moment and share some hope. There have been enough funerals for a week.