God Thoughts February 8th

Memorize: I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. Philemon 4,5

Read  Philippians 2:19-30

Pain isn't the worst thing.  Being hated isn't the worst thing.  Being separated from the one you love isn't the worst thing.  Death isn't the worst thing.  The worst thing is failing to deal with reality and becoming disconnected from what is actual.  The worst thing is to trivializing the honorable, desecrating the sacred.  What I do with my grief affects the way you handle your grief; together we form a community that deals with death and other loss in the context of God's sovereignty, which is expressed finally in resurrection. . .

We don't become mature human beings by getting lucky or cleverly circumventing loss, and certainly not by avoidance and distraction. Learn to lament. Learn this lamentation.  We're mortals, after all. We and everyone around are scheduled for death (mortis). Get used to it.  Take up your cross.  It prepares us and those around us for resurrection.  (Eugene Peterson Leap over a Wall; earthly spirituality for Everyday Christians.  New York Harper Collins 1997), 120,121

Prayer: God grant me the serenity 

To accept the things I cannot change; 

Courage to change the things I can; 

And wisdom to know the difference. 

Living one day at a time; 

Enjoying one moment at a time; 

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; 

Taking, as He did, this sinful world 

As it is, not as I would have it; 

Trusting that He will make all things right 

If I surrender to His Will; 

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life 

And supremely happy with Him 

Forever and ever in the next. 

Amen.