“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” - Mark Davis Pickup

Sunday, August 31, 2014

INCLUDING PEOPLE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Mental hospital where Dora lived
My wife, LaRee, never knew her maternal grandmother: Her name was Dora and she suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Dora was institutionalized in a mental hospital in 1932 at 34 years of age.

Eighty-two years ago the shame and stigma of having a family member in a mental institution was so great that few people in the family ever mentioned Dora, after that. She never got out of a mental hospital and eventually died there. Life went on. It was as though Dora never existed; it seemed that everyone forgot about her — but my wife did not forget.

Throughout LaRee's life her grandmother was a mystery, the lost member of the family who needed to be restored to her rightful place of respect in our family tree.

LaRee tried to find information about Dora from aunts and uncles but their recollections were sketchy and vague. Inquiries to government authorities in charge of the hospital were met with refusals to release information. 


Then one day in 2011 another attempt to get information fell on the sympathetic ears of a bureaucrat who sent LaRee the long-closed, dusty and yellowed file of Dora.


ISOLATED PRISONER

LaRee sat in our living room looking at a rare and faded
photograph of her grandmother that was in the file. Through tears LaRee read the sad details of a tortured life -- her grandmother's life -- a life crippled by devastating mental illness that isolated Dora from the world and all she loved.

A casual observer might conclude that Dora's life was tragic and wasted. But that would not be entirely true. Granted, her life was tragic and sad but it was not wasted.

Dora gave birth to LaRee's mother who gave birth to LaRee who has been the love of my life for more than 40 years. LaRee is the mother of our children who gave us five beautiful grandchildren and they bring immeasurable joy to our lives.


LaRee and me
If Dora had not been here, my world would not exist. Dora did not know much love in her life, but because of her, LaRee and I know love. No, Dora's life was not wasted. She is an indispensable part of our heritage; we owe a debt of gratitude to her. Her picture will sit in its rightful place in our home.

UNFOUNDED PREJUDICE

I have been physically disabled for many years (multiple sclerosis). In the hierarchy of disability, mental illness is near the bottom of the heap. Paranoid schizophrenia is at the very bottom of the bottom. Paranoid schizophrenics don't even fit into the world of disabilities! People with schizophrenia are often social outcasts.

That is the bad news. The good news is that things have vastly improved with anti-psychotic medications and treatments for schizophrenia in the decades since Dora died. There are many effective therapies that can help schizophrenics to live productive and useful lives if they stay on their medications and don't get caught up in the destructive downward vortex of addictions that often plague schizophrenics.


Our Lord showed mercy for the deranged and so should his followers. The Catholic Church has a history of caring for the mentally and physically sick. This not only involves actual care but advocacy for better care of the mentally ill. 

I am reminded of a homily given by Cardinal Lozano Barragan on the 2006 World Day of the Sick. The cardinal stated, in part:

"The treatment for a mentally ill patient should be a treatment of loving care, tenderness and kindness, in order to help him cope with his imaginary world, perceived as an enemy, a world in which he often drowns."

The Cardinal recognized the importance of devising treatments
Cardinal Barragan
designed to draw patients from beneath their circumstances of deep psychic suffering. He reminded his audience that many people suffering the worst psychosis "often lose their sense of human relations and feel persecuted by a hostile surrounding environment." Such people 
need Christ's love so very badly.


CHRIST'S WITNESSES


Indifference of communities to the needs of its mentally ill people can actually threaten their security and safety. They can end up homeless, wandering the streets of inner cities across North America. As health budgets tighten or cut back, the mentally ill can fall between the cracks of service.

Mental illness can strike any family. An ideal opportunity exists to expand Christian outreach and expressions of Christ-like love to the mentally ill and their families. Christ works through his Church. Unconditional love is His great witness to a society where love is selective and arbitrary and hearts so cold.

[Click below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMPCNrWNCg8 for "Who am I" by Casting Crows.]




----------------------------------
Originally published in the Western Catholic Reporter (Canada) 3 October 2011.

THE REAL MEASURMENT OF MEANING AND PURPOSE

I have been such a stupid man. It took me a lifetime to learn that the real meaning in life is not measured by what we get rather what we give. Three year old Emily James already understands this truth. Click below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQZggdZrOo to see her message.



Saturday, August 30, 2014

BRINGING CHRISTIANITY TO THE PUBLIC SQUARE: CANADIAN LORNA DUECK

An Op-ed piece appear in the 28 August 2014 edition of Canada's
Lorna Dueck
Globe and Mail newspaper entitled "Christianity and the good death". It was written by journalist, TV show host, and devout Christian, Lorna Dueck. We've been friends for years and I hold her in high esteem.


Lorna is an evangelical Christian who brings Christianity to Canada's public square through her television show CONTEXT and through her poignant, thought provoking and timely articles in secular publications such as the Globe and Mail. Lorna is a great example for us all of a Christian who refuses to be silenced or sidelined because of her faith. She uses her voice to bring a Christian moral voice forward from behind the headlines. Lorna Dueck courageously stands out in a sea of Canadian secular and anti-Christian media. Read Lorna's latest offering at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/christianity-and-the-good-death/article20227849/ 

Thursday, August 28, 2014

EXPAND CHRISTIAN HOSPICE

The Washington Post recently carried an article by Peter Whoriskey entitled, "As More hospices enroll patients who aren't dying, questions about lethal doses arise". See http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/08/21/as-more-hospices-enroll-patients-who-arent-dying-questions-about-lethal-doses-arise/?

I want to bring this situation to your attention -- whether real or feared. It is that natural outcome of increasing societal acceptance of euthanasia. The old and disabled become afraid of what motives and intentions lie behind the treatment they receive. Many of us old stalwarts in the pro-Life movement have been warning that once the sanctity of human life cultural ethic is abandoned, the weakest and frailest of society would be in increasing peril. That is where we have come to; imposed death and fear of imposed death are now a reality. 

Welcome to the brave new world of the 21st Century.

The need for more orthodox Christian hospices have become a necessity to counter a culture of death that pervades many secular institutions.[1] We need to see an expansion of Christian centers of excellence for continuing and end of life care.  People must rest assured in the knowledge that they or their loved one's will receive care as though it was Christ himself being cared for.


Christian staff of these hospices must operate by this standard of care for all residents because that is the standard Christ gave: "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."[2] Christian and non-Christian alike would be welcome into these life affirming, Christ-centered care. Evangelical denominations and Catholic dioceses must cooperate to ensure an expanded blanket of Christian hospice care covers the landscape. 

The hostility of Obamacare being faced by American Christian institutions must only instigate a redouble efforts for life-affirming care -- even in the face of withering opposition of Obamacare or state policies that are anti-life. Our witness for the natural, God-given dignity of all human life can stand in sharp contrast to the prevailing culture of death and its disdain for the vulnerable. 

Remember, a candle burns brighter the darker it gets. Stand firm for Christ. Stand firm for the value and dignity of every human life. Expand the reach of Christian hospice.

Mark
_________________________
[1] My definition of the word "orthodox" or "orthodoxy" is the same as G.K. Chesterton's in his book of the same name: "When the word "orthodoxy" is used here it means the Apostles' Creed, as understood by everyone calling himself a Christian until a very short time ago and the general historical conduct of those who held such a creed."
[2] Matthew 25.40.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

FATHER OF DOWNS CHILDREN RESPONDS TO RICHARD DAWKINS

My previous post "INCLUDING PEOPLE WITH DOWNS"
Richard Dawkins
referred to Richard Dawkins' disgusting and bigoted comments that mother's carrying a Downs baby have a moral responsibility to abort the child. That brought a welcome comment from Tom Reynolds referring me to an OPEN LETTER TO RICHARD DAWKINS, by J.D. Flynn, published in FIRST THINGS -- America's most influential journal on religion and public life. It is an excellent letter. Please read it here: http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/08/an-open-letter-to-richard-dawkins


What Dawkins does not understand is that people with Downs call the world to a higher standard of love.

Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfuaNhXI1Ao for a beautiful song written by Steve Mosher, the father of a daughter with Downs. It is perhaps the most poignant response to Richard Dawkins' comments.


Monday, August 25, 2014

INCLUDING PEOPLE WITH DOWN'S

A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news blog featured a story about a new line of clothing for people with Downs Syndrome that has been launched. Karen Bowersox of Mentor OH, has developed a clothing line specifically for people with the condition. See
http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2014/08/clothing-line-for-people-with-down-syndrome-finds-success-on-kickstarter.html

Being an advocate for people with disabilities, I took note of the story. It's not a major human rights story, but I suppose it may be a concern -- especially for a person with Downs. This small good news story was refreshing after a bigoted and odious comments by Richard Dawkins last week. The lofty Oxford professor said it is immoral not to abort a child with Downs.[1] That's how coarse and anti-disability our culture is becoming -- that such cruel comments would come from a prestigious university as Oxford. 

Inclusion not elimination of people with disabilities of various kinds must be a goal for enlightened society. Unfortunately nearly 90% of pregnancies involving babies with Downs syndrome end in abortion. And so a story about a loving grandmother of a Downs child developing a clothing line for people with the syndrome was sweetness in the wake of Dawkins' awful words. 

Christians should stand in contrast to such sentiments and advocate for life and inclusion for all humanity as image bearers of God, supporting families facing a prenatal diagnosis of Downs or other disabilities. We can set a standard of inclusion! 

Where does inclusion occur? It occurs in the daily lives of people
with disabilities and the accommodation of their needs. Inclusion occurs with accessible housing and transportation, education and recreation, proper nutrition and access to equal medical care to the rest of the population. And yes, it can occur even in the simplest and ordinary aspects of life such as having clothing that fits. It occurs by including people with disabilities and their families in our community and church life.

Make your church, community and family disability friendly.

Mark
[Click image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIK5st2s3kA for a message of hope to mothers caring a Down's baby.]



___________________
[1] "Richard Dawkins: 'immoral' not to abort if foetus has Down's syndrome: Scientist says a mother has a responsibility to 'abort it and try again' if she knows her baby would have the disorder", The Guardian, 21 August 2014. See http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/21/richard-dawkins-immoral-not-to-abort-a-downs-syndrome-foetus

Friday, August 22, 2014

THE DISSONANCE OF A PRO-CHOICE THINKER

Linda Couri
I want you to listen to a talk delivered by former Planned Parenthood counsellor Linda Couri. She discusses, in part, the dissonance of a thoughtful pro-choicer. Although it is 51 minutes long, her presentation is very revealing and enlightening. Click link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e42gurhnbpA

Thursday, August 21, 2014

CHOPIN'S GENIUS AND DISABILITY

Frederic Chopin was plagued by poor health
Frederic Chopin
(1810-1849)
throughout his short but prodigious life. His bouts of melancholy are well known and have been attributed to bipolar syndrome or clinical depression. Chopin also suffered from hallucinations. A 2011 study suggested this was caused by temporal lobe epilepsy.
[1]

One of my favourite Chopin etudes is Opus 10, No. 12 (Revolutionary). See below. One website describes it this way:

"The Revolutionary Etude holds its place as one of the most eminent and well recognized of all of Chopin’s compositions. Beginning with the first dramatic chord all the way to the impassioned conclusion, this piece is an outpouring of emotion." 
[2]

Chopin is just another example of the richness that people with disabilities can bring to the world.

Mark

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIsiYMiZYG4 , for Evengy Kissin playing Chopin's Etude Op. 10, No. 12, (2:37)]



____________________ 
[1] http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2011/01/25/chopins-hallucinations-likely-caused-by-epilepsy
[2] http://www.ourchopin.com/analysis/etude.html

Monday, August 18, 2014

A COST OF OBSESSING OVER PHYSICAL BEAUTY

I know a beautiful young woman with Hollywood good looks. For the sake of anonymity, let me call her Aphrodite, after the Greek goddess of beauty.  Aphrodite’s statuesque beauty takes every man’s breath away when she enters a room. Her physical beauty may seem like a blessing to the casual observer, but in actual fact, it has become her biggest curse. 

She does not know adversity. A life without adversity is a life without challenges. A life without challenges is a life without the opportunity to develop character. Saint Paul commented that troubles and trials produce human qualities like endurance which produces strength of character (Romans 5.3-4). Aphrodite’s character development is so stunted it verges on a disability. 

Aphro’ rarely hears the word ‘No.’ All it takes is a slight quiver of her perfect chin, a misty look from those stunning aqua-blue eyes, and the answer shifts to “Oh, all right.” The hint of feigned sadness disappears from Aphrodite’s angelic face.

Aphrodite’s exceptional beauty ensures she is doted upon by
everyone she meets. It has been this way since she was a small child. Her divine beauty ensured she was spoiled and doted upon beginning with her first step.

Aphrodite always gets the best seat, the largest and sweetest candy bar, the most extravagant Christmas presents. 

Despite this, she is vain, shallow, self-centered and mean. Beneath her perfect physical beauty bubbles a cauldron of resentments and bitterness.  Yes, Aphrodite’s exterior beauty has made her ugly inside and that is why her blessing is her curse.

People don’t like Aphrodite (she thinks it’s because they are jealous).  There is something sad about her. She has the depth of crackers and her life is without meaning.

Physical beauty is nice to have and there's nothing wrong with putting your best foot forward; but one must not place too much emphasis on it or obsess over it. It's is a commodity of diminishing returns. Beauty peaks at about twenty-two years then slowly begins to decline. In the end, it will be consumed like a moth drawn to a flame. The day will come when men will no longer look at Aphrodite rather past her or through her to a new younger beauty walking behind her. Aphrodite will be plain ‘Jane’ which was her real name all along. That is okay.

Western society is obsessed with youth and physical beauty.  It is a poverty of the age in which we live. Youth fades, so does physical beauty. Yet so much attention and investment is dedicated to clinging to their memory long after youth and beauty have faded away.  Botox and collagen injections, tummy tucks, face lifts, volumizing vitamin fortified shampoos, conditioners and gallons of hair colour to hide the grey become increasingly desperate and sad.  Meanwhile, the true inner self – heart, spirit and soul – are starved of attention and important eternal development! The spiritual soul is the very thing Jane neglected as long as she was Aphrodite. 

A physical body will surely wither and die but the spiritual soul is immortal.  The Bible tells us that a human life is but a breath of time: “[Y]ou have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.” (James 4:14)  The Psalmist compared us to grass that flourishes in the morning and in the evening is cut down and withers. (Psalm 90.5-6).

The Catholic Church teaches that the human body is animated by its spiritual soul. Most  evangelical Christians believe the same. The body and soul together form a profound unity and single nature made in the “image of God.” Though body and soul are separated at death they will be reunited at the Final Resurrection.

We must have reverence and respect for our physical bodies. (Even a broken body like mine is a gift from God.) Sanctity of the body is the Scriptural concept. Having reverence for the body is different than worshipping it.

Saint Paul said, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).  He went on to exhort us to glorify God in our bodies. This happens when we follow Christ. Jane can glorify God in her body ― Aphrodite can not.
    
Did you know it is impossible to truly believe in Jesus Christ and follow Him without sharing in his Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals who Jesus really is.[1]

Life in our physical body is a series of ‘teachable moments”; the holy Spirit is the divine teacher. Aphrodite is not a student, her ego ensures that. But Jane can be a student of life, if she allows it. If Jane turns her spiritual ears to the leading of the holy Spirit then even adversity, trials, and sorrow become teachable moments. The divine teacher will become the divine Counselor and Comforter.
Jesus said “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever ― the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14.16-18.)


The “Counselor” is the holy Spirit. He will reveal Jesus Christ as the great I Am: God made man, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of world. Unlike Aphrodite, Jane can be a child of God through believing upon Jesus as Messiah (John 1.12).  Through faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the Cross she can be reconciled to God. Life will become a rich source of “teachable moments” in preparation for eternity.

With the holy Spirit abiding within Jane, she can live a prayerful,
repentant and joyful life for Jesus. Jane’s heart, spirit and soul can be nurtured to blossom into something beautiful and lasting. Outwardly she may age and diminish but inwardly she will be renewed and spiritually grow.

Goodbye Aphrodite, hello Jane.

[click on image below or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt725sargSw, Laura Story, "Make Something Beautiful".]







[1]1Corinthians 12.3.

Friday, August 15, 2014

TAKING UP YOUR CROSS

Jesus said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and  follow me. (Luke 9.23) 

In some areas of the world taking up one's cross is following Jesus, and it may cost them their lives. Taking up one's cross may be less dramatic than literally laying down your life for Christ, but it always involves suffering and self denial. Everyone must take up a cross of one sort or another. 


Sometimes it is obvious to other people and sometimes it is not. But each of us is called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. In his classic Christian book The Imitation of Christ, the fifteenth century priest Thomas à Kempis wrote about the universal calling of taking up one’s cross: “No man’s heart can experience what Christ endured in His passion except the man who suffered as he did. ... The cross is, therefore, always in readiness for you and everywhere awaits you. Wherever you choose to run you will not escape it because you always take yourself with you and you will always find yourself.”

Taking up your cross will surely turn you toward your interior self because taking up your cross involves the essential work of Christian growth. The daily struggle and suffering encountered under the weight of your cross is where personal purification occurs. Bearing the cross requires you to chastise your will and body and bring them into subjection of God. It is not easy but it is necessary. It is a critically important decision you must make every day. Like I say, it requires work and suffering.

Some people will refuse the cross ― but they can not escape it. As Thomas à Kempis reminds us, the cross is always before us and waiting because we cannot escape ourselves.

The sick or disabled must face and accept their affliction as a divine tool for spiritual growth. The lonely must face and accept their loneliness; their cross may change it to sweet solitude.  The addict must face his addiction demons. Depending on the extent of his addiction, he may even have to decide every hour to take up his cross. Bearing the cross may be different for each person, but they are called  to face it, take it up and follow Christ. 

What is your cross? Don’t be surprised that it requires suffering (emotional, spiritual or physical). Suffering can have a refining effect as with gold in fire. 

Saint Paul said in his letter to the Romans that he considered the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” Later, in 2 Corinthians, he reflected, 

 "For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”

For those who allow the cross to conform them to Christ crucified, they will find it is the way that leads to the Kingdom of God. 


A consolation of the cross you take up is that Christ will travel with you under its weight, if you allow him. Your individual cross – no matter how onerous or burdensome it may be – is never heavier that the cross Christ endured. Remember that you are not alone. Christ is there just as He has been with millions of Christians throughout history who took up their crosses.

If we unite our lesser sufferings with Christ’s Passion, crucifixion and Resurrection, we will discover a strange yet wonderful internal transformation beginning to occur to make us fit for heaven in Christ-likeness.

Mark
[Click image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZsalHQB7aM For the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sing "Take Up Your Cross"]




Saturday, August 9, 2014

SESAME STREET PROMOTING DISABILITY INCLUSION

My grandson Carson is an actor. This past year he did some voice over work for Sesame Street. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXjc5KcU9bs That's his voice you hear introducing the letter "N" to preschoolers.The picture at the upper right is Carson recording the segment for Sesame Street.  

Since infancy he sat on my lap as we whizzed everywhere in my electric wheelchair. He's learned about disability inclusion and it's second nature to him and his siblings. They understand the wheelchair is simply a tool to assist me with mobility, just like and guide dogs help other disabled people, and glasses help people see better. 


Rocco Florentino on Sesame Street
Below is a different clip from Sesame Street. It is promoting disability inclusion, featuring young Rocco Florentino. He is blind; he's also very musical. See below. Well done Sesame Street!

This is something the Church should be doing in a Christian context while providing an example to society of including people with disabilities as indispensable members of our communities. Everyone has something to the table of human experience.

[Click on image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dVEYP82a8  ]



THE DISCIPLINE OF ART

Beethoven
Don't only practice your art, 
but force your way into its secrets,
for it and knowledge can raise men to the Divine. -- Ludwig van Beethoven 

Art needs discipline and persistence. There are many talented people whose talent will wither within them because they lack discipline and persistence. Encourage your children or grandchildren to be creative. The young mind is capable of so much in a spirit of nurture and support.

[See video below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ_fkw5j-t0 The five Secrets of Beethoven by ThePianoGuys.] 


Friday, August 8, 2014

WHEN IT'S "FROZEN" IN CANADA

Last winter, little girls across North America were singing and dancing to the music of Walt Disney's movie "Frozen". My granddaughter's were no exception. It's was joy for me to watch my youngest dance in the living room with such feeling to "Let it Go." 

Canada enjoys five months of winter and in three months we will be "frozen" once again. As a Canadian, I thought ThePianoGuys rendition of the song, augmented with Vivaldi's Winter from Four Seasons, would be fun to watch and help cool down from the summer heat.

[Click image below or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dakd7EIgBE ] 


Monday, August 4, 2014

TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS

There are so many things I do not understand. In the final analysis,
perhaps it does not matter. The only thing that ultimately counts at the conclusion of my life is whether I loved Christ and obeyed his commandments. The learned man and the simpleton will come to the same end. We read in the Book of Ecclesiastes:

“The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I knew that one lot befalls both of them. So I said to myself, if the fool’s lot is to befall me also, why then should I be wise? Where is the profit for me? And I concluded in my heart that this too is vanity.  Neither of the wise man nor of the fool will there be an abiding remembrance, for in days to come both will have been forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies as well as the fool!” (2.14-16).

Because of this realization, the author said he loathed life (verse 17). To hate life because the wise man and the fool both die is astonishing! The author concludes that all is “vanity of vanities” and “grasping at the wind”. The Book of Ecclesiastes has a sense of futility and cynicism at man’s time on earth. Generations come and go. Future generations forget much of what went before them. What you or I build will be dispersed when we die and our work and accomplishments forgotten. It has been this way throughout the ages. The Psalms speak about the brevity of life. The Apostle James put it bluntly: “You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.” Every generation passes away and is eventually forgotten.

My grandfather’s academic achievements and community status are gone and forgotten. Nobody even remembers him. The places where my father’s stores once stood are decrepit old buildings now with no indication his businesses were ever there.  All he labored for is gone like dust in the wind. The only physical evidence that Howard Pickup was ever here is a gravestone in a country cemetery and a school that bears his name (most of its students know nothing about him). Other than that, all that remains of him are memories in my mind’s little grey cells to occasionally recall his ambitions, hopes and dreams. That, too, will eventually turn to dust.

Earthly wisdom and all that people gather from “under the sun” will come to nothing. Wise men like my grandfather and father as well as fools like me will all die and be gone like the wind. I must not loathe existence because of this: Life is a gift. It is only wisdom that comes from God – and work done for the Kingdom of God – that will last into eternity.

The Book of Ecclesiastes concludes by saying, “The last word, when all is heard: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man’s all; because God will bring to judgment every work, with all its hidden qualities, whether good or bad all its hidden qualities, whether good or bad.”

Jesus confirmed this when he said, “A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak.  By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12.36-37.)

Future generations will forget you and me but God will not forget
us whether good or bad. We all will fail the test if judged on the purity of our words and actions. Only through forgiveness and salvation which is so freely offered through faith in Jesus Christ can any of us withstand the day of judgment.


Life on earth is transitory. Why build your treasure here? It will age or grow obsolete, rust or wear out. You and I will die and leave everything earthly here. Seek first the kingdom of God; build your treasure in heaven.

It is when we experience a life transforming encounter with Jesus Christ that “the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” Those words are from a wonderful old Hymn called Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.  It was a hymn that meant much to me in the early years when multiple sclerosis was stripping me of my physical abilities and earthly priorities.  It was all vanity. I was grasping at the wind.

Christ is changing my focus to things that are eternal not temporal. We all can gain eternal perspectives if we turn our eyes upon Jesus. Amen.

[Click below or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxb6VvPrkE for Michael W. Smith singing Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus".]