Oh Elaine… Goodbye Dear…

My girlfriend and colleague was having dinner with a friend last night, she passed out and never regained consciousness… she died… that’s it! She’s gone… she’ll never come to my home again for tea… she won’t be waiting for me Monday morning to go get our coffee together… a morning ritual we had observed for over a year… since I came to this office… I loved her… I’ll miss her…

Her whole life wasn’t very long… she served in the Navy and was currently working on her computer science degree… she was very smart, a very hard worker, she loved her job, her family, and her friends… she loved to fish and to cook… she was in her early 30′s… her life so short.

Scripture says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27.

Elaine has met God now… and if she could reach back, what would she say?

It’s real.. God IS real… the judgement is REAL!…. don’t delay…

We don’t know how short life is…. we don’t know when we will see God… She and I talked often of God’s love for her and she knew the truth.

As for those of us who remain… Will our debt towards God be marked “paid” through Jesus’ death on the cross or will we be judged to be “in debt”?

The question really isn’t, “What will you do with Jesus?” rather… it is… “What have you done with Him?”… at least that will be the question when we each as individuals face God.

My heart goes out to Elaine’s family… who are heart broken over the loss of their daughter, sister, aunt, and her friends all of whom really love her.

I’ll miss you Elaine… Goodbye Dear Friend… I won’t forget you!… I’ll look for you on my appointed day…..

I love puzzles!

The REAL Question

The question is NOT – “What would Jesus do?”

The question IS – “What will YOU do with Jesus?”

What makes us love myths so much?

As I mentioned Thursday, initially C.S. Lewis thought myths are lies while J.R.R. Tolkien completely disagreed.

Patrick Curles writes in Tolkien’s Impact in Literature and Life

There are truths, Tolkien said, that are beyond us, transcendent truths, about beauty, truth, honor, etc. There are truths that man knows exist, but they cannot be seen – they are immaterial, but no less real, to us. It is only through the language of myth that we can speak of these truths. We have come from God, Tolkien said, and only through myth, through story telling, can we aspire to the life we were made for with God. To write and/or read myth, Tolkien believed, was to meditate on the most important truths of life.

Scripture tells us that God wrote knowledge of Himself on our individual hearts. This is born out by the fact that, irrespective of geographical location, the one thing common to all societies that have ever existed is that they all show signs (archeologically) of religion. I’ve heard it said that “religion” is man reaching towards God (although Christianity is God reaching out to man). If there were no God, why would man strive for so long trying to find Him?

I think man not only tries to find God, but that man does also search for truth, unfettered by modern philosophy. It’s paradoxical that man doesn’t want to take responsibility for his own actions. It’s this perspective that keeps man from pushing too hard to find God and leads him to embrace relativism… leads him away from God.

Frequently you’ll hear that there is no absolute truth (but the sentence itself is making an absolute statement and is therefore self-defeated.) Good myths (as opposed to evil or bad myths) give us an opportunity to learn, to think, to gain knowledge. Those that are well written allow us to walk in the hero’s shoes, to feel with him or her the full gamut of emotions. It’s far more than escapism. They enrich us as individuals. True, well written, myths are a feast for our minds and spirits, our inner eyes and ears. Oh yes, and our hearts.

There’s truth in Tolkien’s work that we can recognise, contemplate, and appreciate. If you’ve not read Tolkien I do encourage you to read first The Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings. If you’ve read him once, I urge you to read him again… that’s what I’m going to do…

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