#122of365 #FaithBites #FaithJourney

Before we get to today’s lesson, a small announcement. We are now 1/3 of the way through 2018 and this makes 122 faithbites posts. Crazy. I never thought I would get this far along when this started back in January. 1/3 down, 2/3 to go. Onto the less….

Today’s lesson is about the highs and lows of life. Today is the 18th birthday of my sister-in-law and would have been my Dad’s 71st birthday. Such celebration for my sister and sadness but also good memories for my dad. I can’t remember how many times I’ve asked God for just one more day with him. One change for him to meet all of his grandchildren. At the same time, I look at my sister who is now an adult. She is graduating high school, starting her life, and making her mark on the world. I wonder what she will be when she grows up. (I still wonder what I will be when I grow up. Ha). I am anxious to see the world she is inheriting and how she leaves it for the next generation.

Life is like that: ups and downs. Highs and Lows. One of my best friends in high school told me, “Nothing too good or too bad, lasts too long”. It’s hard to think about good things not lasting too long. It helps to see the bad won’t last too long either. I know Earth is not nor ever will be paradise. That is my reward through Christ Jesus in the next life. I still like to think there is both goodness and happiness for all of us here. Not perfection, (the whole good and bad thing), but goodness. I see it in the sunny days. I hear it in my children’s laugh (I see the not so good in their crying but that’s another story). I see it in the generosity of people helping out a dear friend dealing with medical issues. The good may not last forever on Earth, but it will in Heaven.

“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I can’t help singing the song every time I see this passage. So today I mourn my father and express joy for my sister. I see the goodness in the world and the evil. I try not to hate but love all. (That’s a tall order for sure). A time to speak and be silent (not so good at this but learning). What is the point of all this? It’s to show that “nothing too good or too bad, lasts too long”. But the beauty is these are things for this earth, not the next one. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are already in the next world, preparing a place for us (John 14:3).

I will try to focus on the good of htis life and the infinite beauty and peace of the next one. I hope you can too.

Are you willing to see that the bad won’t last too long? Can you see you are loved my many? Are you willing to see that Jesus is preparing a place for you?

I am willing and able (with the help of God)