This year's Lenten journey is indeed difficult for many as there have been a number of unexpected deaths and terrible accidents.  It is indeed enough to make one cry out, "Where are you, Lord?"

 

How is it we endure and respond in such difficult times when there are no answers to "why" things have happened and it sometimes seems that God must not be here, or certainly doesn't care?

 

We all know that being a Christian doesn't insure a "charmed," care-free life, but when tragedies are personal it's not easy to remember.  Shouldn't there be some kind of reward for our faithfulness?  It's so hard to remember in the midst of grief and loss.

 

Our God is not a "fair-weather" God.  When there is an untimely death or tragedy, God is the first to weep with us in our grief.  Yet, God is also active and at work, even in the midst of grief, for He is with us in the very presence and ministry of friends and family.  God has given us the incredible gift of memory that helps us to "hold on" and assists us in "letting go."  And thank God, that we live in the powerful promise and surety of life, not just for the here and now, but for eternity. 

 

Our "reward" is that we get to know the Giver and Sustainer of life.  We know the power of His presence and the comfort of His care.  We live in relationship with others and our world because of the relationship He has with us.  We have no terror of the unknown because we know who and whose we are. 

 

Life is far from easy and hardly ever fair.  Yet we have a God who side stepped the easy and went way beyond fair in granting to us the gift of salvation and eternal life in His presence.  We are human; we do grieve, yet we do not grieve as those who have no hope, for our hope is in the Lord, who has never failed His people.  In His love, we are equipped and strengthened to continue our journeys, difficult though they may be, knowing that death does not have the final word.  We are "an Easter people!"  Thanks be to God!

 

Peace, 

 

Pastor Carol