The Physically Challenged Ministry

 

PCM 10-21-2012 How do you explain God, illness, and death.

 

http://www.irish-gifts-blessings.com/PCM-10-21-2012.html

It has been a rough period of time recently. Funerals for Dorothy Killea and Lillian Kimball. Also the deaths of Betty Sullivan [sister of Carol Hare, our beach friend], a stepfather in law of another beach friend Pete. Mary Flowers a fellow ms sufferer lost her life at 56. Also the assisted suicide of an online multiple sclerosis friend Anne......

Personally I have to defer to God in how to approach all this because it is all too much to comprehend and process all on my own. I could rely on what I see, feel, touch and understand or I can believe what Jesus has said.….. Call me a simpleton if you must, I choose to rely on the one who created it all...It is the only logical way to explain all of what we do not know. [The more I learn, the more I learn I do not know]. To those humans who are all knowing...have fun explaining yourself to God WHEN you see him...

John 8:12 MSG Jesus once again addressed them: "I am the world's Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in."

John 8:15-16 MSG You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don't make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn't make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father.

John 8:50b–51 MSG God intends something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I'm telling you, you'll never have to look death in the face."

Much of my thinking was shaped by experiences and the views of those I grew up with. It is important for me to differentiate between others opinions and the reality of who EXACTLY God is to me as well as who I am to him.

I view God as perfect, good, loving, caring and a lot lot lot smarter than I am. I see him as all powerful, all knowing and eternal. I know enough to know that I am limited in knowledge, power and time spent in the current state of life as we know it.

I know enough to perceive and know that there is a lot beyond the less than 120 years we may get here on earth with the temporary, fragile bodies we dwell in.

I have seen people die and can attest that their bodies stop working as much as a flashlight does when the batteries are taken out. It is just the container, not the contents. As useless as a Dunkin Donuts cup without your favorite beverage in it. Not even worth the nickle that an empty soda can is....

You however, the very contents of your heart and soul are invaluable to God who created you.

Something to ponder as you go about your day to day life.

See you all someday!

Love in Christ, Bill Sullivan The Physically Challenged Ministry.