12 April 2009

Holy Week 2009 – Resurrection Sunday – He is risen, he is risen indeed

Greetings Dear Readers,

The sun is not up yet as I write this. It will be shortly. Families will gather today and share a meal. Little kids will hunt for coloured eggs and eat too much candy. Since I found Christ 35 years ago I have always taken Resurrection Sunday seriously. It was my wife Avalon who got me to see the whole week as significant. I miss her terribly this morning. Ironically it was this time last year she told me she was leaving me and that I could do nothing about it.

This has been a year where I have learned much about who I am and who I had become. It is the moment that is about to be that matters. I have realized just how much of my life was not Christ’s but was my trying to live on what I had learned of Christ in the infancy of my reclamation. I had stopped in the journey toward who Christ calls me to be, trying to maintain something instead of continuing to grow. This has hurt my Sons and likely everyone else around me.

Christmas 2007 I had made a realization about just how stagnant my journey toward Christ had become. People I cared for were withdrawing from me and I was focusing on so many wrong things. My brother-in-law said something that set different thinking in motion in my heart and head. I determined to find a way out the mire I had put myself into. I did not know that Avalon had already begun departing.

Last Resurrection Sunday I was so full of pain that I could barely function. This year is different. I know what a crooked stick I am. I see how much I had forgotten how to show grace to others at the level that I need grace from Christ. I realize how often I fail Christ and shudder when people say they want to be like me. I have begun to build friendships with men who are an example to me. I have remembered just how much the world needs me to disappear because I have focused on Christ enough that they only see him.

I have little hope that Avalon will return. I hope that I can save my relationship with my Sons. I know that I can, because of His grace continue to build my relationship with Christ. The sun will rise shortly reminding me that Christ is risen from the dead. That is my only hope. A risen Christ and his grace is all that I have and the only thing in which I can set my store. So I ask you today to look with me to the empty cross and the empty tomb. I ask you to walk with me not because I am great but because I follow one who is great. I will fail you and he will not. Please take the journey not because I am on it but because he is leading it.

Pilgrims to the City of God – Michael Card

Pilgrims of passion,
We follow the One who holds out a cross and a crown
We travel a dark road that has but one Light
For we have here no lasting town
And sometimes we run by the power of His might
On our own at the best we can plod
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight
We are pilgrims to the City of God
The stigma of strangers lost in a strange land
In a fallen world that's not our home
But we are not just homeless prodigals here
Because we have some place to go
And sometimes we run by the power of His Light
On our own at the best we can plod
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight
We are pilgrims to the City of God
Pilgrims to the City of God
Behold, you have come to Mount Zion
To the city of the Great King
To thousands and thousands of angels who come
Assemble to joyfully sing, they sing
And sometimes we run by the power of His might
On our own at the best we can plod
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight
We are pilgrims to the City of God
And sometimes we run by the power of His might
On our own at the best we can plod
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight
We are pilgrims to the City of God

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

3 comments:

  1. Aramis, you do so much to belittle yourself. What is a King without any subjects? What is a head without a body? The church is the body, and Christ is the Head. You are a clump of dirt, but Christ makes you shine when you glorify Him. We are all clumps of dirt. You are no better, and certainly no worse, than the rest of us.

    I don't know about what your relationship with your sons is like. I can tell you, that if I were your son, I would be proud to call you Dad. My own father is a good, loving man, but he is not a "father figure." He doesn't bond with his children, or talk to them about what's happening in their lives, or other "fatherly" things. I take after him with my social isolation. I still love him. You are more of a father figure to me than my own father. You lead me to Christ, you ask me hard questions and force me to confront hard answers, you share wisdom with me, you slow me down when I go too fast, you prod me when I don't take action, you forgive me when I mess up, you treat me with grace, you let me confide in you my secrets, you lessen my fears, you help me tackle my problems and achieve my dreams. If your sons love you half as much as I love you, you have nothing to worry about. When I become a dad, I Want To Be Like You. Shudder all you want.

    I. Want. To. Be. Like. You. I really want to be like Christ, but I cannot. No human can be like Christ. We are all flawed and depraved. The best that I can aspire to be is a humble, sinful, forgiven, loved, Christ Follower. Years ago, I saw His footprints in the sand, and because I was a Christian, I said, "Yes, I believe those are Christ's footprints." I believed, but I didn't follow. Over time, those footprints faded and I lost them. You passed along, fumbling to follow Christ, but following nonetheless. You gave me a fresh set of tracks to follow. I'm not following you, I'm following Christ behind you. Without your fellowship, I would still be lost in the desert. Make no mistake about it: Christ used you to reach out to me, just as He has and will continue to use you to reach out to others. Don't be ashamed that you are not perfect like Christ. You are showing the world what it means to be a Christ Follower. Your writing--this blog--is the reason I started following Christ. You showed me how much I needed Him, and how much He loves me. Christ is the leader... thank you for pointing me in His direction.

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  2. DejaPhoenix, I am not trying to belittie myself. I am trying to be open so that others may learn from my failures. I am trying to learn not to hide my falleness. Thank you for your kind words.

    Aramis

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  3. Anonymous28/4/09 15:16

    aramis knowing you personally it is great i learn so much from you and im sure your sons do to and so does your daughter

    abbi :]

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