It Ain’t Yours to Throw Away - Life

Greetings Dear Reader,

In the past month I have seen four people I know and care about try to give up on life.  It is odd that they do not know each other.  Thankfully none of them succeeded.  I have spoken before of the times I have approached the dark edge of despair. 

The difficulty is that we proceed from a false assumption.  We assume that our lives are ours to do with as we wish.  Since I am in for a pound in following Christ I must always proceed from the assumption that my life is a gift from God.  It is not a gift to throw away.  It is a gift to use.

Some days are hungry lonely days.  Some days are there is feasting and beauty.  The difficult days; the days when the pain and longing are necessary to appreciate the ripe Georgia peach days.  They hard days are there more importantly to remind me that even on the worst days God is still there.

It is not my intent for a moment to neglect that depression, pain, and hopelessness are all real issues.  People need help.  They need love and compassion.  They need hope.  Having been to that edge I understand how the next step can seem like the logical one.  Worse still it can seem like the only one. 

I know it sounds too simple and I do not have it all figured out.  I know it is harder for others that for me to find hope.  If, however, we proceed from the assumption that there is no hope we are wrong.  If we believe that our lives are self-contained and autonomous we are in error.  Our lives are not ours to throw away.

We need to be refined by the hard times and the pain.  We also need the support of others.  Our lives are for the purpose of learning to know our Creator.  I cannot imagine that He is pleased when I forget that.  I also know he has anticipated my forgetting and made arrangements for me to remember.

My life is only mine to give away in that I give it back to God.  Anything else is an exercise in foolishness.  The way in which I give it back is to do my best to live every moment in loving God and man.  If all that I do proceeds from that then I can rest in the hope that the pain and sorrow  in life cannot eclipse the hope.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."