With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 

If you’ve ever observed someone at the end of life it’s an experience that stays with you the rest of yours. 

I recall when my mother died, her eyes opened and then closed before her final breath and it left me with more questions than answers. 

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭15‬:‭37‬-‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Albeit a little late, the centurion’s own acknowledgment was on the money and certainly made a profound impact on his life and on those he shared it with. 

It took witnessing Jesus’ final breath for his belief to materialize, just as it did ours. 

Tiny
droplets
falling
landing
faster now
they race
for standing
driving down
in revving sheets
in bouncing frenzy
each one competes
but I
lost
count
and the river won.
So I sat down
to watch the cool summer rain
applaud the earth

and I waved the checkered flag.

This will necessarily be brief because my downgrade has been approved within the hour out of ICU to a regular floor before discharge home, but only because of the extraordinary care from two nurses during my stay at Spring Valley Hospital.

As irritating as hospitalization is, these two took care of my every need, want, and desire for the past few days with good humor, good wishes, and a preference they could be new best friends when I’m back to life and reality.

While they’re coming to take me away at this very moment, I’ll miss these two.

My hope is for God to richly bless them in their lives and careers and hope our paths may again cross but under more pleasant circumstances.

They made it as pleasant as one could ask

Bravo to this truly dynamic duo!

Coincidences. They happen every day.

You pull over with a flat tire and seconds later there’s a massive pileup at the next intersection.

You get a $50 rebate check and an unexpected $50 invoice on the same trip to the mailbox.

The defining difference lies in your perspective on such events.

Are they just chance occurrences or is there some other force at work?

For the critical mind, it’s easier to view them as chance coincidence. But ask yourself what difference might it make if you ascribed the event to something more divine?

In the former choice, there is no change to your day, your mood or your outlook on life. It’s just another event in a litany of others that make up an otherwise routine day.

In the latter choice, there is every opportunity to feel just a little more hopeful, a bit more optimistic and a better than even chance that you’ll begin and end your day believing there’s more to life than simply what meets the eye.

What might very well be pure chance, might also very well be divinely providential.

With one, you walk away having gained nothing. With the other, you walk on and look forward to the next coincidence.

What have you got to lose?

Or perhaps better said,
what do you have to gain?

Ever wake up in the morning unable to shake an uneasy feeling about the day?

Nothing you can put your finger on, just a sense that something upcoming is different.

Not sure if it’s good or bad, just unfamiliar, so you check your calendar, your schedule, your to do list, and seemingly nothing is extraordinary, remarkable or noteworthy.

Your morning routine continues but you’re hyperaware of your surroundings, and not just a little superstitious about what to expect next.

So you take that little package of unknown and intangible something with you out the door, on the road and at work, all the while, staying a couple steps ahead of yourself so that if it’s actually something, you’re not entirely caught off guard if or when it happens.

It’s a little foreboding, a little interesting, and a lot more than you bargained for when you first woke up.

You arrive back home retracing the events of the day, have your dinner, catch part of a show on TV and flip the lights off for the night to land back in bed where it all began more than half a day ago.
And just before drifting off, you realize the true cost of your prolonged anxiety that all began simply because you first believed the day ahead was yours alone to construct when it never actually was.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Today I would be 40 years married if not for some dumbass confused druggie douchebag who failed to grow up, own his shit and get real with God and himself before roping in a spouse to his chaos.

Our personal failures teach us all the important life lessons, at all the wrong times, but in all the right ways.

Life never promises to be pretty, just extraordinarily successful at producing life change if and when you finally allow it.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.

‭‭Mark‬ ‭12‬:‭43‬-‭44‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We’ve grown to be cynical about church offerings. And for all too many good reasons. 

Jesus’ lesson here paid no attention to the actual collection but to heart and faith conditions of the giver. 

God needs none of our money. 

He transacts in currencies far more important and eternal. 

God smiles upon our sacrifices as judgments of our hearts, minds, and faith. 

It’s one thing to be a man of means who follows the 10% rule faithfully. It’s another to give out of a love and faith that God provides for our needs regardless of our gifts. 

Jesus adores that which drives our behaviors because only there and then are we dealing in the only currencies redeemable in heaven, love and faith. 

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
‭‭Luke‬ ‭12‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Less is more.

If not for the sake of humility, then for fewer distractions from the stuff of life that really matters.

You can’t take it with you and it will be left far behind sooner than later.

For a rich life, invest in assets which, by definition, are transcendent from this life to the next.