Friday, January 20, 2006

New Year's Resolutions

I was reading some friends blogs and noticed that some people talked about their New Year's resolutions. Why does it take a New Year to resolve to improve your life?

Oh, I know the arguments, but it is still a mystery to me. If you need to improve your life you should start doing it when you think of it, and not wait for a New Year to do it. If it is worth doing in a New Year, it is worth doing now.

Besides, what if you realize that you should be doing something (or stop doing something) in February? Are you really going to wait 10+ months to start (or stop) doing something you should be doing now? Wouldn't people have a better track record of keeping their "resolutions" if they resolved to do it now? If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right, and it's worth doing now.

So there. That's my opinion.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Reflections

During my life I have had a lot of exposure to dead people and their relatives. My father is a pastor and I have attended more funerals than most people my age. However, very few of these funerals have been for people I dearly loved.

Last night I had the honor of sharing a couple of hours with a freshly grieving widow. She was surrounded by caring family and friends. We all sat there comforting each other with our presence. From time to time a comment would be made or a story told that would make us laugh and/or cry. Silence was not a burden. The peace that passeth understanding was present.

It is times like these that you really see and understand some of the great benefits of being a child of God. To see this young widow rejoicing over the six months of memories she has to cherish; to know the loved one is not really dead, but is now at home in heaven; to be able to thank God for what you had and not curse Him for what He didn't give you; all this and more proves that God's love is greater than we can imagine.

Other cultures have long and elaborate rituals that must be performed when a loved one dies. Some of these are to protect those still living; many more to help the dead one in the next life. How sad to realize that there is nothing anyone can do to help a loved one once they are dead. We need to prepare them for the next life while they are still in this one. Once you are dead, it is too late for you or anyone else to change your situation in eternity.

Are you ready to die?

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Shocks

There are times in life when you simply sit in shock. Today is one of them.

Darrin is dead. He simply collapsed on the floor and they were unable to revive him. His wife Tiana called 911. They came, they performed CPR, they took him to the hospital, all to no avail.

Darrin & Tiana are young, younger than me. They have been married for less than a year. To all outward appearances Darrin was a very healthy, active young man. There was no warning. Our one comfort is that he was a Christian and is now in heaven.

However, he has left behind a grieving young widow. Please pray for her. One of my dear friends Marsha (who is Tiana's best friend) is with her now. Please pray for them both.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006


Juliana

Two days in a row

Horray! I have blogged two days in a row.

The problem is, I can't remember why I went to all that effort yesterday and what I was going to blog about. Oh well, maybe I will think of it later. Probably tonight in the shower.

Monday, January 16, 2006

OK. So I finally figured out how to get into the create a post section again. But now I'm out of time to write anything. Maybe I'll get around to trying again tomorrow.