death(5/0)
Eternal life is deliverance from spacetime
This image is encouraging to me at this time because I’ve also been meditating on eternal life. While we live in this temporal life, friendship and camaraderie are haunted by fear of loss. The older I become, the more friendships I enjoy, the more barbs of sadness I seem to carry in the friendships that have grown dim by distance and time. But humans aren’t meant to be pincushions of sadness and loss.…
We find our true selves via death
Merton speaks of a true self that only God knows, a self formed by the person and God in union together. But (every one of us is shadowed by a false self), masks we wear that can’t be real for God does not recognize them. That’s why Merton claims that if i am true to the thought of him i shall find him everywhere in myself. However, the presence of God is fearful to us because, as a consuming fire, he burns up false selves and leaves only what’s true.…
To listen and obey Jesus' word brings life
In the story where jesus heals a crippled man near the sheep gate, Jesus sees a crippled man. He notes this man has been waiting many years for healing, thirty-eight years to be precise, and he asks the man if he wants to be made well. The man explains that there’s no means to heal him because no one will assist him into the healing pool. Jesus tells him to stand up, take his bed and walk.…
Actions in human wisdom lead to death
The first time Abram is given a chance to rely upon God’s promise instead of his own wisdom, he leaves the promised land and sojourns in egypt. Despite the LORD’s promise to make him a great nation, Abram leaves the land he’d been promised when a famine makes staying hard. When he approached Egypt, he ignored God’s promise to protect his family and used deception to protect himself. He achieved his own protection at the price of Sarai; the very woman through which God was going to fulfill His promise!…
Leaders win by continually dying
Leaders give up more and more of what they have to succeed. To become a leader takes sacrifice. But many believe the sacrifice is a one-time cost and the privilege of leadership worth the price. For some, the cost is a graduate-level degree program. To others, it’s extra hours on the clock to become a star employee who deserves promotion. Others see the cost as family vs. career and choose to forgo a family for a while in order to be a leader in their industry.…