As a people, we keep asking a few fundamental questions.

Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Where am I going from here?

Individually and corporately we ask these questions over and over again. Given the amount of time and effort we spend on them, they must be important.

I would propose that how accurately we answer these questions has a profound effect on how we live our lives and how much joy and satisfaction we draw from it.

I would propose that how happy YOU are……..right now, depends on how well you have dealt with these questions.

Today, I’m thinking about question #2. “Why am I here?”

Look at somebody you know who is miserable and has been that way forever. Odds are, he either hasn’t considered the question at all, or has answered it badly. An example would be the guy who believes that he is here to accumulate “status and stuff” (I’ve been there). He may be wildly successful in pursuing what he sees as his purpose (I was). And yet, he cannot seem to grasp that evanescent thing that he is after……deep down. Satisfaction……..joy………. they just seem to elude him. He keeps accumulating more stuff and still isn’t satisfied. He buries himself in his work. Then, one morning, he wakes up………old, tired, alienated, unhappy, and unfulfilled. This dynamic is behind a lot of “midlife crises”…….and, ladies, it’s not just limited to men.

Look at somebody you know who is filled with joy……..all day, every day. (OK maybe not every day…… but most days). Odds are that she has found the place where she just “fits in”. She has gifts, talents, some great, some small. But, here’s the main thing. She uses them to make things better for everybody in her world. She may not have “stuff”……she may experience setbacks; but, there is something about the way that she uses her gifts that gives her joy and satisfaction. Sounds a bit like “love your neighbor” doesn’t it? 

How will you know these people when you see them? They will either radiate joy…….. or sadness. And here is another key feature….. their joy or sadness will be relatively independent of their situation. I often tell people that I have a fairly rare skill set…….I have figured out how to be happy. And yet, 2 of my 3 sons died in their 30’s. My one living son was crippled in a motorcycle accident.

What’s the trick?

The trick is to know the answer to the question……”why am I here?”. 

I know the answer……. for me.

You have to figure it out ……… for you.

Or you could just ignore it………. you might get lucky. You might just stumble into the very special place that you fit into.

Here is some help in figuring out the answer to the question “why am I here?”

The answer is permanent……….it cannot be taken away from you…….by natural disaster, by financial ruin, by being put in jail, by the death of a loved one, by divorce, by disease or injury, by betrayal, by mistake.

The answer is not something that you get to choose. It is something that you have already been given……… you were born with it. It is “written on your heart”. If you are science oriented you would say that it is instinctive. If you are feelings oriented, you would call it your destiny. This really goes against the “mantra” of our age: “I am the center of the universe…….. the captain of my fate………my self fulfillment is the ultimate goal…….it’s all about me”.

The answer will lead you to the special place where you need to be.

The things that the answer leads you to do are not directed toward you. Paradoxically,   they are directed away from you. This is what makes finding the answer so hard……especially in our “me centered” culture. The benefit to you is indirect. You reach out…… you give……..without preconditions. There is no “quid pro quo”. Satisfaction and joy come back to you………again, without preconditions.

You already know the answer. If you deeply search your heart, you can find it……though you may have been resisting it for your entire life.

You will know when you have found it………because you will suddenly experience a deep abiding sense of satisfaction and joy………peace that transcends your situation.

So………why am I here?

I am here…….I was created…….. for relationship with God……….Abba………..my Dad. Sounds like “love God” doesn’t it? 

On the days when I pursue that relationship well………I am joyful……….other days……… not so much.

So……… why are YOU here?

We hear a lot about hate these days. It has even become a new category of crime. I find that I watch less and less TV lately. But, when I do watch, I see more and more hate. I see it on the news. I see it in prime time entertainment. It is especially rampant on the talk shows. I would argue that the “talking heads” on TV are one of the deepest reservoirs of hate in our society……….. right up there with politicians.

For those of you who are less than 65 years old, here is a list of popular TV shows from the 60’s: “Leave it to Beaver”, “Bonanza”, “Ozzie & Hariett”, “Gomer Pyle”, “Andy of Mayberry”, “The Brady Bunch”, “The Tonight Show”…… you get the point. These shows were a lot of things……..but they were fairly hate free. Compare these shows to the fare we get during prime time today. Talk shows are even worse. Politicians……. both on the left and on the right are the worst of all.

And the hate is growing………it’s growing so fast that it is scary.

If hate is a good thing……. then we are in “hog heaven”.

But, I doubt that any one of us thinks that hate is good.

It is very easy to spot hate when it is directed toward people that we agree with………. it is much less obvious and much less offensive when the hate is directed toward our enemies. It can even feel noble to hate our enemies………after all they are evil…..aren’t they?

Here is the trick.

The politicians and the talking heads on TV demonize anybody that they disagree with. They work very hard to fertilize and cultivate our list of enemies. Their sponsors and donors spend billions of dollars to grow our list of enemies. Together they spend billions of dollars and hours of prime time to grow our hate. Then, in an act of amazing hypocrisy, they object to the fact that the other side……. “the enemy” ……..is doing the same thing.

Here is a profound truth.

Your “enemy”……… the guy that your TV, smart phone, and your computer want you to hate…..is a lot like you. In fact, he wants the same things that you want: safety for his family and community, financial security (not a Porsche in the drive, but enough to feed and shelter his family), a decent job, health care that won’t bankrupt him, air that he can breath, and water that he can drink. In a word……. your “enemy” is not evil……..he is almost like you……..he just sees a different way of getting there……… and the politicians and “talking heads” hate him for it.

The politicians & the talking heads……..your TV, smart phone, and your computer…….. have lied to you……. they have recruited you into their hate. I know his sounds strong……… but if you look at what they feed you objectively……… you will see what I’m saying. Think about the people that they want you to hate. What have they done to harm you personally? Did they hit you, rob you, steal your car, vandalize your home? No……. what they did was to intellectually offend the talking head.

So………. what do we do? How can we, as a people, fight back against hate?

First and foremost……. we must identify the “enemies” whom we have been taught to hate. If you are having trouble making a list…………start with Trump and Pelosi. You can probably come up with a list of a dozen specific names. Add to that the nameless faceless classes of “enemies”: illegals, the “one percent”, black people, white people, etc. Then we need to recognize them as people very much like us…… people who, in the final analysis, want about the same things that we want.

Second…….. we must learn to disagree with them without anger…… without hate. We must learn to talk about our problems with each other…….like adults……. without rancor. We must recognize that the “other side” has good workable solutions too.

Third……..it’s time to start filtering out the inputs that are trying to grow our hate. I admit that it’s unrealistic to throw our TV, computer, and smart phone into the trash…….. although that would go a long way toward solving the problem. But, what we can do, is pull the plug on any media outlet, talking head, or politician the instant that they cross the line into hate. This will be easy when they are hating you or your people. It will be much harder to spot and act on when they are hating your “enemies”.

Just remember, the media and the politicians are the ones who sold you your list of enemies in the first place.

Here is my hopeful thought for this week:
A talking head on TV tries to recruit you to hate his “enemy du jour”.
You turn off the TV.
His ratings drop.
His sponsors flee.
He is replaced by another talking head with his list of enemies.
Repeat this until the media catches on. This could take a while……. they sincerely believe that they are smarter than you are.

Or…………….you could just keep on ingesting the hate…….but what does that say about you? In the end………we get the world that we deserve.

So…….. when you are watching Fox and Hannity laces into somebody……….. when you are watching a late night talk show and Colbert laces into somebody……… just turn it off. Just pull the plug on hate. Keep a good book handy as a backup.

I’ve just finished reading “Educated” by Tara Westover. I highly recommend it.

You can, as a Christian, disagree with others.

But, there is nothing Christian about hate.

Even if the person whom you are hating is wrong.

Today’s post is a simple exercise……. sort of a way to kick the tires…….. to see what Christianity is like for the non-believer……. or to refresh yourself if you are a believer.

Take a minute…….bring to mind somebody you are mad at. It needs to be somebody close to you…… somebody you interact with regularly. Please don’t pick somebody whom you don’t deal with directly……. please don’t pick Trump, Clinton, etc.

This could be somebody who has disappointed you, maybe a family member. It could be someone who has failed to deliver on a promise, maybe a businessman. It could be somebody who has physically or financially harmed you. The hurt that they caused could be recent……….or it could be decades ago. But, the person must be present in your life today.

The exercise is to love them. If they are truly dangerous, you may need to do it from a distance. It is better if you can love them up close.

Practically speaking, how do you go about it? Here are some suggestions.

Pray for them……. you can skip this if you are a non- believer….. the exercise will still work.

Call to mind something positive about them……. and everybody has good points. With some people you just have to dig a little deeper.

If possible engage then in a positive way…… talk to them, text them, send them a Christmas card.

Say or do something nice. It may be something that they really don’t deserve…….. something that they haven’t earned. (Sounds a little like grace?) If it feels a little weird…….well that’s kind of the point.

Finally, and this is the hard part, forgive them for whatever they did that made you mad. If you can forgive them for just one day, that’s enough. If you can forgive them forever, that’s even better.

If you can pull this off, for even one day, you will discover something. You will have given somebody a very valuable gift. The recipient of the gift though……….is not the other guy…..it is you. And the longer that you can keep it up……… the greater the gift that you give yourself.

You are probably sceptical……… but if you sincerely try the exercise, you will be surprised. You might say…….”this is all fine and good……. but what does it have to do with Christianity?”…………everything.

This is the very heart of Christianity…….to love your fellow man….specifically those who have mistreated you. More than that, this is the example that Christ lived out with his life and death.

You can see that this is way different from what the pundits and talking heads on TV tell you to do. ( I’m talking about the Hannitys and the Acostas of the world.) This is the difference between the Christian world (properly done) and the secular world.

This exercise will probably have little effect on the person whom you chose…….although you might be surprised.
But, after a day, consider whether YOU are better off or not. I am convinced that the most reliable path to true, durable happiness……..to joy……..is loving others.

If you find that loving others makes you happy, then pursue it. If you are rebuffed, try again with somebody else.

By loving others, even those who don’t deserve it, you are following Christ’s example and his teaching.

Christianity, it turns out, is far simpler than you thought.

We’re heading into the holidays. Soon you will start hearing Christmas music in the stores. Listen to it closely. Most of it will be secular. Santa, Rudolf, snow, and so on. What you won’t hear this Christmas is Christian Christmas music……..The First Noel, Silent Night, The Little Drummer Boy. This is also happening on TV. Watch the Hallmark channel. They run a series of Christmas shows……pretty much year round. But, the themes of these shows are “the magic of Christmas” or romances set around the holidays……lots of Christmas trees and snow. But, Christ is not a big part of the Christmas shows that are aired on TV.

Why?

Because, as Christians, we have been run out of the public forum. A small minority of vocal atheists have complained so much that businesses and the media have intentionally excluded our music. This is no accident. In a word, these businesses, not to mention our own government actively discriminate against us.

Recently, I was staying at a resort. There was a singer performing in the lobby one Sunday evening and she chose a set of Christian themed songs. It was so nice to hear this music……..my music……in public. But it was so unusual that it was remarkable. Then I realized that……as a Christian…..throughout my country……I have been subjected to anti-Christian bias. The idea of “separation of church and state” has grown into the concept that Christians are not allowed any place in public to be heard. It’s ok for us to talk to each other in church……..but in public we are expected to sit down and shut up. I once read a book on Christianity by an ex-president and he said as much.

I’m not asking that every song and every show sound like a church service. But, it would be nice if we were not completely excluded either. It would be nice to hear a religious Christmas song every now and then at the mall.

In a way, Christians are being treated the way blacks and gays were treated when I was young. You never saw a TV show about a black family. You never heard a song about a gay person on the radio. Fortunately, the treatment of blacks and gays in the media and in the public forum has improved. Maybe it’s time to allow Christians a place back in the public forum as well. Equal billing would be great.

So……… I’m going to say thanks when I see or hear a business or the government publicly recognize me as a Christian. And I’m going to go out of my way to support businesses that play Christian christmas music this winter.

A guy I know came to church.

This guy believes in Christ. He is a stand up guy, a great husband and a great father. If I was marooned on a desert island and could pick one man to be with me, it would be him. He just doesn’t attend church. This is probably because of experiences that he has had with toxic christians over the years. I have been trying for about 10 years to get him to start bringing his family to our church, which is a really great one.

One day, he told me he’d be coming to church on Sunday. I said a prayer of thanks and was there to meet him. He brought his daughter. He showed up on a really cold day wearing his warmest jacket…..a black leather “motorcycle jacket”. As he was walking in, he was feeding his daughter a hard boiled egg. She doesn’t eat well and he feeds her protein whenever and wherever he can. He doesn’t sleep well and he probably looked a little rough.

As he walked in, his first encounter was with another man. This man gave him the “look”. The look said, “you are no good and you don’t belong here”. In 10 seconds that “Christian” undid 10 years of my work.

We often pass judgement on people based on incomplete or even bad information. We must realize that there are things going on in the other guy’s life that we know nothing about. This isn’t just sometimes true…….it is always true.

The moral is this. We all need to operate based on a simple rule that I have tried to follow for most of my life (not always successfully).

NEVER ALLOW YOURSELF THE LUXURY OF BELIEVING THAT YOU ARE, IN ANY MEANINGFUL WAY, BETTER THAN THE OTHER GUY……….. BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT.

There is no more effective way to undo God’s work in this world than to pass judgement on the other guy.

There is no more effective way to promote God’s work in this world than to love the people that you meet……right where they are…….no matter what.

Imagine living in Israel in 580 bc. You are a small poor country. You are only a few years removed from wandering around the desert in tents. Your main city, Jerusalem, has been destroyed. Most of your countrymen have been hauled off into slavery. You are barely getting by.

To the south is Egypt, a 2000 year old empire that was fabulously wealthy and powerful. To the north is Assyria, a rich powerful 1000 year old empire. To the east is Babylon, a rich powerful 1000 year old empire. To the west are Phoenicia and Philistia, rich and powerful 1000 year old empires.These giants can crush you, rob you and enslave you any time they want…….. and they do from time to time.

You pick up a book at the bookstore one day and it contains predictions of the future:

Egypt will be destroyed
Assyria will be destroyed
Babylon will be destroyed
Philistia will be destroyed
Phoenecia will be destroyed

They will wind up as 3rd world backwaters and you, Israel, will prosper and dominate the region.

You would have laughed. You would say that the author(s) were crazy. Imagine a 21st century pundit predicting that the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, and Great Britain would become 3rd world backwaters and that Croatia would prosper and become a major world power. Impossible you might say.

And yet it happened…….all of it.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

If you had known in advance that all of those utterly ridiculous predictions were going to come true, I bet you’d have read that book very closely. You’d probably assume that the writers were geniuses or that they had a source of “inside information”. You would listen very carefully to what they had to say. You might even change your plans based on what they said.

The book, of course, is the old testament.

From where we stand today it’s easy to lose perspective. It’s easy to think that the old testament is a qaint collection of fictional stories. But, if you look at it from the perspective of the people to whom it was addressed, it is amazingly accurate in its foresight…….inspired you might say.

So, when the old testament predicted a messiah, the Israelites took it very seriously.

We should too.

A friend was recently told by a pastor that she could not join our church unless she was baptized by immersion. Sprinkling just won’t do. She did not get immersed. She has not become a member of our church. She is a solid Christian and a good person.

Another friend is gay……. and many gays don’t attend church at all.

What is getting in between them and God?

In both cases, it is rules that are standing in their way. Rules are interfering with their approach to God. Paradoxically……… the old testament is in their way.

So…… how do we balance the old testament rules with the need to draw people closer to Christ?

The rules must be important…… after all, the old testament is full of them………. 613 in the Torah alone. Spreading the faith is also important. But which is more important…….. the rules or spreading the faith.

You may not like this.

The answer is: “it depends”……….and what it depends on is where you are in your walk…….with, toward, or away from God.

When a rule clearly leads a person toward God, there is no problem. For example: don’t worship idols. Things get muddy when a rule stands in the way of somebody’s approach to God. Clearly, the immersion rule is impeding my first friend’s progress. With my second friend, things are a little murkier. The bible clearly and repeatedly says that sex is for husbands and wives. Based on the clarity and repetition of this rule, it must be important. And yet, it is impeding many LGBT people from approaching God.

I think that the best approach is to develop a “my rules/your rules” strategy. In other words, how I apply the rules has to depend on where I am and where the other person is………in their walk. For myself, I will honor as many of the 600 some odd rules as I can. For others, perhaps friends who are just dipping a toe into the water, I will keep it to “love God/ love your neighbor”.

It would be a tragedy for somebody I know to miss out on paradise because I beat them up over one of the rules from the old testament.

It would be a tragedy if somebody walked away from a great church because of a technical disagreement over baptism.

It would be a tragedy to lose an entire group of people over a rule about sex. I’m not saying that we should abandon our rules. I am saying that with others, we should sell “love for God and our neighbors” first. We can worry about rule #7 later, maybe a lot later.

The way I see it, I have my hands full managing my own behavior…….. my own compliance with the rules. I don’t have the energy to oversee the other guy’s situation. I don’t claim the moral superiority to judge him. I won’t conduct an argument that puts an impediment in his way. Because win or lose, the argument alone will drive him away. I’d rather “agree to disagree” if that will remove a barrier between my gay friends and God.

So what do I say to my gay friends if they ask about their practices? I would say that the old testament has rules. So does the new testament……it says that God loves you and so do I……… and for now that’s good enough for me.

The key idea here is that we cannot alienate people by trying to stuff all of the rules down their throat. Start with “love God/ love your neighbor”.

God will take care of the rest.

Scientists have an idea called a Singularity. It is an event that is so drastic, so disruptive that we cannot see past it. We cannot measure what is on the other side. In a way the singularity obliterates any physical evidence of what lies beyond the singularity in time and space. It is possible that time and space as we know it don’t even exist on the other side.

The “big bang” is the classic example of a singularity. Ask any astrophysicist…….any cosmologist what things were like just before the big bang and they will tell you that they haven’t a clue. They will say that they just can’t see or measure what is on the other side of the singularity ……… what is on the other side of the wall.

For you and for me, death is also a singularity…….an event so drastic and disruptive that we just cannot see what is on the other side using the tools of science. Limited by science and secular humanism, we cannot know what lies beyond our own death. In this arena……..science is completely blind and that is terribly important.

So………how do we deal with death and what follows death when science leaves us complety blind?

1. Believe that because science is blind, there is nothing there….. when you die the lights just go out. This troubles me. The fact that you are blind is a poor reason for believing that there is nothing in your path.

2. Just ignore the problem………it will take care of itself. This also is surprisingly common. It may very well be the most commonly used strategy for dealing with………or not dealing with the other side of the wall. This plan is also a problem for me. If eternal life is real…….and because of the singularity problem you cannot say that it isn’t…….I think that not thinking about it, not preparing for it, is a bad strategy. At best it is shortsighted.

3. Make something up. Surprisingly, this too, is extremely common. If you ask a bunch of people what happens to them after they die, you will hear a lot of descriptions of a really nice place, a place that is a everything that they want this messed up world to be. In effect, this is a designer paradise that reflects the wants and needs of the person you are talking to…….a paradise created in their own image. This seems to me dishonest………..unless they happen to be God…… though it is a lot of fun. It is also very comforting for them because it is always a place that makes everybody else change but doesn’t require them to change anything about themself.

4. Choose a religion that describes the other side of the wall, the afterlife. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are the 3 most common. For me, this option makes the most sense. I choose Christianity because I believe that there is enough good evidence supporting the resurrection of Christ. You can read my post on the resurrection for more details.

So……. there it is. You live out your life…….and at the end of it, you face the wall……..and you cannot see past the wall. Science is completely blind. Secular humanism offers nothing. Darwin is silent. Do you deny the other side, ignore the other side, just make something up………..or do you accept the possibility that there is something more, make your best choice and try to prepare for life on the other side of the wall?

When I was young, I was a Boy Scout. I guess I still am. Our motto was “Be Prepared”…….. I’m going with option 4.

I try to operate at the place where secular humanism, atheism, and Christianity meet. I am a Christian, as you suspected. The two ideas that do the most to drive a wedge between Christians and non-Christians are: the age of the earth and the resurrection. Both are tough topics. I’ll save the age of the earth for later.

So what about the resurrection? Did it happen or is it a myth? Which side you choose is moderately important during your 80 years on this earth. But, considering the potential consequences, it is the most important choice you will ever make for the period after you die, which may be a very long time.

I’m not going to take the easy way out…….”because the Bible says so!” But, on the other hand, you cannot completely dismiss the Bible either. Most of the written history supporting the resurrection is collected in the Bible. To discard it out of hand would be like a judge at a trial telling the jury to disregard everything that the defense had said. There is no faster or less honest way to “win” an argument than to reject any evidence that opposes you.

So……here goes.

Point 1: the resurrection is physically, scientifically impossible.

It seems to me that this is the entire point. If a supernatural being (God) wanted to prove a point, boiling water or building a dam would not be a very compelling demonstration. What better way is there to show us that he operates outside of our rules, outside of our world, outside of current scientific understanding than to do something impossible. In a way you have to choose: either science has it all figured out and the resurrection is impossible…….or there are things that are beyond our current understanding. We call these the supernatural……including the resurrection.

Point 2: Jesus lived; he was an historical figure.

He lived and he was crucified. There are contemporary accounts outside of the bible that mention him.

Point 3: He died.

A Roman soldier was well trained to do one job…..to kill people. To botch a judicial execution would have probably cost the soldier his own life. At the end of the crucifixion a soldier drove his pilum (a spear with with an 18″ barbed metal point into Jesus’s chest). This was followed by 3 days without medical treatment. Jesus was dead.

Point 4: He was seen alive after the crucifixion.

On several occasions multiple witnesses spoke with him, saw him, touched him, and ate with him. These accounts are collected in the new testament.

Point 5: The execution of the disciples

At least 10 people suffered torture and a gruesome execution rather than deny that they had witnessed Jesus alive after the crucifixion. I can think of no instance in human history where 10 men in 10 separate events gave up their lives to promote a lie……..a lie that they did not benefit from in any way.

Point 6: Jesus said he was the son of God

He endured torture and crucifixion rather than recant. He was either telling the truth……or he was insane. There is no middle ground. Some say that he was a great man. Others say that he was a prophet. These positions ignore his unambiguous claim to divinity. He was either the son of God or he was insane. The written texts are more consistent with him telling the truth about his divinity. It is very hard to read his teaching and believe that he was insane.

Taken together, I think that these points prove the resurrection beyond a reasonable doubt. This is important because of the chain of logic that follows.

The resurrection happened.
Therefore, Jesus was devine.
Jesus endorsed the old testament.
Therefore, the old testament is true.
Jesus promised paradise to those who believe.
Therefore, the difference between spending eternity in paradise and spending it somewhere else is belief in Jesus.

And that is why this seemingly abstract choice is so important.
This is why this question deserves study and thought from you………a lot of it.

Death

I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

What is death like? My dad almost died once. He was working on a car and was overcome by carbon monoxide. He passed out. Somebody saw him and drug him out to fresh air and he recovered. When asked about it, he said it was really nice. He almost wanted to punch the guy who saved him. Otherwise, no details. I don’t think that my dad was a religious guy. I am not at all sure where he wound up.

All near death stories point to a destination…….a light. Most describe seeing family and friends. Most are pleasant and happy stories. A very few are terrifying. Watch the movie Ghost (Patrick Swayze) sometime.

The bible says that you will “sleep”. You will wake up when Christ returns. It will be just like sleeping at night…there will be no sense of the passage of time. At some point after that believers will be separated from non-believers. Non-believers will go someplace that ranges from unpleasant to horrible beyond understanding.

Believers will go to a perfected world with young healthy perfected bodies. Paradise will be a lot like the world that we know. You will have a young healthy physical body. You will have a job. I will probably be a carpenter………I don’t know what kind of job you should expect if you are a criminal. All of the things that are wrong in this world will be gone. All of the things that are wrong with you will be fixed. You will see and know God in a way that you cannot imagine now. You will understand things that just make no sense here.

Your questions will be answered. I believe that strangers will come up and tell you about how small kindnesses that you passed out……. things that you don’t even remember……..changed their lives.

You will experience a satisfaction unlike anything that you have ever known………. because you will be in exactly the place that you were created for…….you will be doing exactly the thing that you were created to do.

I think that many of the rules in the bible are there to prepare you for the way things will be in paradise. You will experience love in a way that you cannot imagine. You will experience generosity in a way that you cannot imagine. You will experience truth in a way that you cannot imagine.

The bible teaches that our earthly minds cannot fully comprehend what paradise will be like. I accept that I don’t fully understand what it will be like……I just know that I want to be there.

Death as a sailboat. (From Van Dyke……..abridged)

I imagine a beautiful large sailboat at a dock. It is strong, capable, graceful. It sails away and finally disappears over the horizon. Somebody says “Well, it’s gone” and they turn and walk away.

But the sailboat isn’t really gone…….it is just as real, just as strong, capable, and beautiful as it ever was. I just can’t see it from my limited perspective……..from where I’m standing right now.

It isn’t “gone”……..it’s just somewhere else.

My youngest son died just before last Christmas. But; he isn’t “gone”, he is just somewhere else. We will meet again…….and neither of us will need our glasses.