Simple and Focused

We live in strange times. People eat chemical-laced, pre-mashed potatoes from unrefrigerated foil bags, and gulp toxic drugs as if they were green peas.  Duped squirrels chew on car bodies and wiring, somehow thinking plastic is food.

Things are unnatural.

Chronic illnesses are on the rise; even children succumb to cancer, too deathly soon. Threats of terrorism erode security.  Identity is stolen and falsified everywhere, even in your own living room at the hand of a crafty scammer on the other end of the phone.

Things are unsafe.

In the blink of an eye, an MRI proved to our dear friends on Monday that their nineteen-year-old son had *something* in his skull that didn’t belong there. We met them at the hospital early Tuesday morning.  After surgery, the doctor’s report seemed twisted with peril.  Our hearts broke.

Hours and minutes have continued to flow since then, challenging us to live fully - to squarely face reality and cultivate gratitude for divine light in darkness, even in the most simple of everyday moments.  Nothing is too hidden or quiet or small.  Everything matters.

We listen to ourselves and to others more carefully, and speak simply, clearly, and directly. Complaining, comparing, and judging have no place, but rather we seek each others’ presence and full attention. Goals and expectations are simplified.  Personal agendas seem inconsequential in the shadow of what seems so untimely; there is no cause for defense or justification.  

As we move from numbness toward acceptance before the Almighty, we find His mercy and compassion spawning patient endurance and hope.  

Things are focused.

Things are simple, a matter of love.

* * *

For as in Adam

all die,

even so in

Christ all

will be made

alive.

* * *

No eye has seen,

nor ear heard

nor the heart of man

conceived what God

has prepared for those

who love him.

* * *

I Co. 15:22 and I Co. 2:9