Eternal life

Packing a Suitcase For Heaven

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

Cast your burden on the Lord , and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalms 55:22 ESV

Some burdens feel like an overweight suitcase dragging behind us as we run through the airport of life.  But God promises us that if we ask Him, He will carry it for us. In God’s calendar He has marked a day for our departure from our planet and like every other trip we must pack our suitcases. We have a close friend who has traveled so often that he joked that he could pack for overseas in 15 minutes. The reason for his boast was that he had learned the secret not only of what to bring, but also what to leave behind. When we pack for heaven that is doubly true. First be sure to include lots of mercy. Mercy takes up almost no space at all and considering how often we mess up here on earth I need plenty! 

Second be sure to include the portion of faith that God has given you. Remember that in heaven we will still walk by faith because even after we see His face we still need to trust in His goodness. And don’t forget to stuff in so much love, joy and praise that you may need to sit on your suitcase to get it closed. The way to have enough room for all these is learning what to leave behind. The first thing to take out is bitterness because it will make our luggage way too heavy. And as you are tossing that out you can put complaining back on the shelf as well. God won’t be interested to hear from us about our brother or sisters faults. He will instead show us how much it cost Him to forgive ours. God is so good and any day one of us will stand before Him. What we choose to pack or not pack for our most important journey will stay with us forever. Be sure to travel light!

 

 

Growing Older With Jesus

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

I am grateful to my friend Robert Keller for his guest post today. Recently as he was recovering from a medical incident he spent three weeks in a long term care setting. That experience put him in the same kind of situation I see every week as I visit in facilities around our community. It is easy to forget that residents in long term care are no different than any of us on the outside. But God remembers! Here is my good friend’s perspective on growing older and learning to lean more and more on the Lord.

Robert Keller

 

As we grow older, we become painfully aware of our increasing physical limitations.  Although outwardly there is a slow decline which results in restricted activity, inwardly the Spirit of God is carrying on an amazing process of revitalization and transformation that results in an ever-increasing freedom unlike anything we experienced in our youth.

wp-1580987971304.jpg

It gets harder and harder to make out what friends are saying to us in a noisy restaurant, but our hearts hear the Shepherd’s voice more clearly than ever. We find that our legs cannot carry us as far or as fast as they used to, yet our walk with the Lord is strong and steady and it leaves us energized instead of exhausted. Our minds are now slow to process new information, but through the Holy Spirit, we are gaining a progressively deeper understanding of the truths found in God’s word. We do not see as well as we once did, but spiritually, our eyes have grown keener and we clearly see the hand of God moving in marvelous ways. Life in this world may become increasingly difficult as our bodies wear out, yet our hearts are filled with peace, hope and joy because

As we focus on the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. (2 Cor 3:18)

Waving Goodbye

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  John 1:4

As this week of the 47th March for Life in Washington I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be pro-life. Of course as a nursing home chaplain my perspective is skewed towards the end of life side of that issue and I wish more people would think about then end as well as the beginning of the journey. For example, last week friends of ours lost a close family member. Though Tom passed away peacefully with his two sons at his side the event was especially difficult because he was in a deep coma and only being kept alive by a ventilator. His sons were placed in the awful position of having to agree to allow the hospital to disconnect their dad and then watch as he slowly slipped away.

There has been a lot of disagreement on the whole subject of what to do at the end of life. I have stood by many people and their families as they struggle with what to do at that time. But rather than delving into a deep theological debate I wanted to look at things from a different angle. The worst kind of disconnection is not from a machine but it is from family and friends. Some have said, “I just can’t bring myself to see him (or her) because I want to remember them as they were.” But I have sat by the side of people I loved and seen the hurt when people they cared for deeply refused to come.

With all our technological advances and 21st century comforts; we as a society are too often disconnected from the people that should matter most in our lives. We used to sit in rooms watching TV and while it wasn’t the ideal family event at least we got to laugh together at the comedies or shout at the screen when our team won. Now we sit in restaurants while each one texts; plays games or takes a phone call. At the gym many people have their ear buds playing their music and aren’t at all interested in even saying hello. Little wonder then that when grandpa or grandma gets carted off to an assisted living facility or a nursing home; that they are easily forgotten. I see them coming in at Christmas or maybe for a birthday; but while they are so proud of their families and so wishing to see them; they sit instead day after day alone looking out the window wondering where their children, neighbors or friends have gone.

Maybe instead of having just one single day to remember the sanctity of life we should have weekly reminders that being pro-life means loving the people every day. We need to celebrate not only the opening lines of a life at birth but also the closing of its final chapter.  We don’t have to be afraid if we trust both our own lives as well as theirs into God’s hands. His love draws us together and we can know that by His grace we can wave goodbye; trusting that we will meet again in His presence.

IMG_5291