Good morning…
“Sue – I’m having the most amazing ah-ha moments right now,” she wrote. “I had to share this with you, both, because it relates to your recent stories of friendships dying & because I’m so grateful God is walking beside me so closely, leading me to new understanding & transformation – some truths I think I’ve been scared to face before.”
“Talking with my ‘cohort’ buddy today, who is not a subscriber of your daily messages, I found it completely ironic that her ah-ha moments this week were also about finding life in death,” she continued. “She shared this devotional below which seems so connected to your recent posts. It’s bred this really cool excitement in me to see what God is weaving with us – interconnected but on so many random levels. I love it! I especially love this message below & the peace it bestows if we can truly live in the faith that life comes from death. Makes it seem so much more tolerable and less horrifying.”
…trust that more is going on here than we could ever imagine, hope for, or comprehend completely. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us (Ephesians 3:20, MSG).
There is death in every life and life in every death. Death of friendships. Death of dreams and dogma. Death of pets, priorities, and people we love dearly. We heal by grieving, yes. We also heal by expecting to find abundant life, somehow, somewhere, sprouting from the Spirit working within us. Deeply and gently God works within us. This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” (Romans 8:15, MSG).
Why are we looking for the living among the dead? Because Jesus promised before leaving earth for heaven: “I will be lifted up from the earth. When that happens, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32, ERV). Dying on the cross so that we all might live, Jesus tore open the veil between earth and heaven. Death and life now inhale and exhale together.
In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true: Death swallowed by triumphant Life! Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now? (1 Corinthians 15:53-55, MSG).
…Sue…
