Thoughts on a Thursday Evening

Sitting here in my living room in Catania Sicily, I can’t help but wonder how life can change so drastically in so short a time.  My husband has collapsed from exhaustion rather early this evening, and I’m sitting here waiting until my parents get off work so I can skype with them tonight.  As I was sitting here, I glanced over at my husband’s computer, which he left open on some photos he was working on.  Naturally, I started skimming through all the photos that we have on this computer.  I guess I was in a sentimental mood, because I went to see if we saved any photos from our wedding on here, but we didn’t.  They are all on a hardrive in Maryland with our other pre-Italy photos.  Then, I had a thought.  I wondered if we’d remembered to delete our home videos too or if they were still taking up storage space on this computer.  I was in luck.  All of our videos are still stored here.  I started looking through ones that we took starting with soon after we were married, ones with our friends from college, our first thanksgiving, birthdays, when we first brought Denver home and all of his playful puppy days, graduations, and videos that we took when we were on vacation from our jobs.  

First of all, I recommend that you DO NOT look at videos of your dog, if you currently live a whole continent away from him.  Tears will be shed.  It’s a fact.  And I can’t help but realize how silly I am to cry over my dog.  I never had a dog before Denver, and if I’d heard anyone else make this statement before I was a dog owner, I would have thought them slightly crazy.  So I started to think, what makes me cry over something that really is well…just an animal?  I started thinking about dogs.  They’re so loving, so acceptable, and they just want to be with you.  Isn’t it crazy how much we, as humans, crave that?  We crave love, acceptance, and people who want to be with us.  No wonder we love our dogs so much.  But, and even though I love my dog, I have to be honest – he’s still just a dog.  He doesn’t replace people.  It’s hard sometimes to express love to other people.  We fear rejection of our love and desire to be with other people.  But then I can’t help but think of the greatest example of love there is – Jesus.  

Seriously, have you read the gospels? Let me tell you, I thought I’d read the gospels a lot before, but since becoming an English teacher who uses primarily the gospels as a text, I didn’t realize how much I had just glanced over before.  You can’t help but read the gospels, and see Jesus’ outpouring of love to the people.  Which people, might I ask?  Did you notice? He doesn’t spend all his time with the cool kids, the rich folks, the people with connections, and politicians.  In fact, he’s even rebuked for how he spends time with sinners, tax collectors – basically people not worthy of being in association with.  And what’s his reply?  It’s rather famous, but I don’t know if many people realize that it was something that Jesus actually said in Luke 5:31, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”  Jesus loved these people by healing them, spending time with them, eating meals with them, and talking to them.  He didn’t just heal people and walk away.  Even though his ministry was really short, there’s evidence that he took time to really BE with people.  And what was the general reaction of the people? They rejected him.  But he loved them. He loved them, and died for them, and rose from the grave for them. He conquered death so that they – we – could live forever. So if that’s not love, I don’t know what is. And he did – he loved us in spite of being rejected, beaten, and scoffed.

 I know that there are a lot of religions out there, but I’ve never heard another religion that talked about the son of a god leaving the heavens, living as a human, and then dying for mere people.  That’s the God I want to follow. That’s the God I want to live my life for. Is it easy? No. Definitely no. But are things worth having, ever easy to get? So, it’s relatively easy accepting God’s gift of eternal salvation.  If you believe it, then why wouldn’t you confess it, repent of your life, get baptized, and obey.  The hard part is afterwards.  The devil continues to tempt us. He wants us. He has everybody else, he’s not worried about them.  He’s working on getting us back.  The struggle is to continue to put God first in your life. But it’s possible. And I think that’s where the church comes in. 

Many people today, especially from my generation, think along the lines of something like this: I want Jesus, but not the church.  But the church is important or else Jesus wouldn’t have done this:

Galatians 5:25-27²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Also, the church is the place where this outpouring of love, acceptance, and community can exist.  It’s the place where you can find the encouragement to keep fighting the fight.  It’s the place where you can be accepted for who you are and helped along the way to make you more like 

Jesus wanted us to be.

Love, acceptance, and relationships.  These are all things we crave.  Well, you can have it all with Jesus.  His is a love that will never end, he will accept you whenever you are ready, and this relationship that will strengthen you and last beyond your lifetime. 

So I know it was rather random that all of this stemmed from me thinking about my dog, but I’m like everyone else.  I crave these three things.  I love my family, but I’ve found that Jesus/God is the only one who is always there for me, and the only one who loves me unconditionally.  And when I remember this need, I’m reminded that there are so many people out there starving for these three things too.  One of the greatest things we can do with our lives is just what Jesus did with his – love others, accept others, serve others, and build relationships.  How else can we show Jesus’ love but through this way? 

 

So anyways, I sit here on this Thursday evening contemplating these things.  My life has been completely changed upside down in the last 7 months.  I have more questions than answers. I keep learning that I know nothing. I am sure of one thing though – God is in all things. He loves me/ us; and wherever I am my life purpose should be to share this love with others.