Greetings Dear Reader,
I find that I have reached that stage in life where there are
long goodbyes. I do not mean partings
for journeys or life-changing moves. Those
happen as well and sone of them are grievous.
I am in the stage of life where colleagues and friends are beginning to
die.
People with whom I went to college and mentors from my youth
have gone on to the clearing at the end of the path. They are beyond my ability to remind them of
my love and gratitude for their place in my life. It is one of the things we must carry as we
age. It is a source of grief that is
difficult and inevitable.
If I am going to turn this grief to grace, I must look to
their benefit and not my loss. I must
see their gain. If I love them more than
myself, I will work through the grief knowing that they are free from the
struggle of the journey home. Feeling
joy at their gain helps mitigate my loss.
There are also the partings, losses, where no one has died
but the strife in the journey has caused one or both parties to refuse to show
love to each other. This too is grievous. I am guilty of this in my past and endure it
presently as well. The grief here has
comfort to turn it to grace too. I use a
simple polemic to keep my heart focused on following Christ and trusting the Father
in everything.
It is this:
Major Premise – The Father Provides for all my needs
Minor Premise – The relationship I have lost has not
been restored even though I have sought forgiveness and tried to restore it.
Conclusion - I do not need that relationship restored
yet or it would be so.
I am free then to trust the Father to restore this at his
pace. I can deal with that person in
love and grace from a position of humility. I must live out the consequences
for my failures without complaint or anger.
I can feel grief at the loss of that person’s time and attention but
since all things will be one day brought back to good, there will come a time
when peace is restored.
For now, I must follow Christ in love and grace, praying for
those who are living and absent. I must feel
loving joy for those who have reached the end of the journey. My loss is their gain and that, Dear Reader,
is how I am supposed to live. It is hard
but turning this kind of grief to grace is a great benefit in drawing closer to
the one we follow. It is a source of
peace that cannot be robbed from us. It is
a practice in selflessness that is uniquely holy.
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
homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Every human story is part of the great story that leads
to the Father getting everything back to Good.
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
#aramisthorn
Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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