Death and Life at a Funeral

Yesterday, I attended the funeral of my Uncle Hugh, who died after a long battle with Pancreatic Cancer.  We gathered at the funeral home at 11am and sat with the rest of the family.  We heard a sermon from his pastor about his life and what he stood for and even had a visit from the first basketball team he coached in Hoboken, Georgia.  The overflowing fragrance of flowers and the overwhelming sensation of happiness, but also of tearful nostalgia of times we had with Hugh filled the room.  It was truly a hard, but beautiful moment.

There's a lot to learn about funerals.  At first, it's a happy occasion (especially in the case of believers) because you celebrate the fact that even though his/her life on earth is over, they're with the father in Heaven.  From there, it turns to sadness and you tend to focus on the fact that the loved one you lost is gone from this earth and how much you will miss him/her.  Then at the end, it turns to a happy occasion because you look around you and you begin to treasure the ones around you.

Funerals do teach us so much.  Not only a lot about death, but also a lot about life.  It teaches us to embrace the fact that one day, we will be like the person we are here to remember in that we will die, our bodies will be put in the ground and the worms will have their way with them. Ben Franklin even said "There are two things certain in life: Death and Taxes."  There's not many things in life that are certain, but it is certain for all of us that we're all going to die.  We need to quit trying so hard to avoid it and just accept that when the time comes for us to die, that we will die with honor and dignity and be able to not regret a single moment of our lives.

Funerals teach us a lot about life.  It makes us ask the question if we have truly lived life or if we have only done enough to survive through life.  I have to be honest and say that I see too many people just surviving and not enough people truly living.  It seems that we as believers are thinking so much about the life to come, that we forget about the life that we have right now.  I'm not trying to say that I don't do this from time to time because I do.  I'm just saying that when is the last time we as human beings truly lived and not just talked about living or surviving.  Make the most of the day, love God, and love others.  God is not just the God of the past and future, but more importantly he's the God of the present.  Enjoy every moment.

Loneliness

Everywhere I look, I seem to see lonely people.  From China to Spain, Atlanta to Tifton, from Restaurants to even churches, it seems that there's an inherent loneliness in all of us.  There's even times where one can be in a room full of people and still feel lonely or all alone.  I've even heard stories where couples feel lonely as well.  

I've been really pondering why this is the case in the life of all humanity and really think that the answer is straight forward and honest.  This loneliness came into the world thousands of years ago when one man and one woman decided to eat from the only tree in a certain garden that they were not to eat from.  This loneliness started when two people decided to do things their own way instead of the way that God intended for us.  In a sense, the loneliness we feel at times is because of the human condition that each of us have.  It serves as a reminder that there's only one person that can feel that void in our lives.  God is the only person that can feel that void in our lives and a relationship with Him is the only thing that can make us whole... truly whole.  He's the only thing that makes our lives rich, deep, hopeful and peaceful in the midst of a broken world full of wars, genocide, hunger, conflict and desolation.

I'm learning that the loneliness feeling will never go away.  It will show up from time to time in my life and I'm certain that it will show up in married life as well as in a life of singleness.  The difference is that I know now that God is the only person that fills that void in my life.  Why do you think there's a loneliness in the world?