Letter to my Lord

#537

Letter to my Lord

The apostle Paul, in his letters of the New Testament, always referred to our Lord Jesus Christ, so I am speaking to our Lord meaning, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think everyone should write his or her obituary before death. When you look at a tombstone, there is usually a date of birth, hyphen, date of death. It is what happens during the hyphen, the time in between birth and death, that matters. It interests me to hear political advertisements, politicians who list their many accomplishments, degrees, memberships, and successes. Never yet, have I seen a political advertisement in which a politician refers to his failures. There are usually memberships in civic clubs, academic, and professional groups, even church membership. In most obituaries, references made to parents, and if the family is “blue bloods” grandparents.

The world has totally changed in my lifetime. There was a time, when any church members funeral would be held in his church but, the family has gotten so cheap that often the funeral of even the church members are held at the funeral home. I cannot imagine a family whose member had been loyal to and supported a church their entire life not having the funeral at the church...but they do because of the greater expense involved. I understand that every time the body is moved the funeral home adds on an additional charge. Why not just take the casket directly to the cemetery...and always have a grave side service? I was at a cemetery in Paris, where I had gone to visit the grave of one of my world heroes, and a man came by pulling a cart on which there was a casket...three people following. I thought, this is the future for the death of people in the world except now, more so than ever it is mostly a cremation process.

In the obituary, you want to list your academic achievements, your professional activities, and certainly any elective offices held or board appointments. For the benefit of readers, you always give your wives or husbands and children by each. For the older, there will probably be numbers of children or grandchildren because, in every sense of the word, the DNA you leave behind in your family is more important than anything else.

The Christian life is different. If not different, something is wrong. Every morning of my life, probably because of the military, I rise very early. I have my time of prayer...seeking Gods guidance for the day...then a time of thanksgiving where I observe communion. Since I believe that Gods atonement covers our health as well as our salvation, I have a small piece of bread for healing and a small sip of wine in thanksgiving for His redemption on the cross.

Another thing I do each week, on Friday night, although totally blind, I write on a legal pad all my blessings of the week, my concerns, my ambitions looking forward to another day, another week. Someone has said, “happiness is going to bed at night tired, looking forward to another day of activity.” I cannot understand lazy people...those just content to sit around and wait to die. There is too much to do. Work has never killed anyone, but lack of work will make you a sullen, sorry, useless individual. This week, the city was working on the street in front of my house. I asked one of my employees, “what is going on?” He said, “they all have on city uniforms, two Mexicans are working very hard, and two blacks are standing...watching. This is the reason that fifty percent of the population pays fifty percent of all the taxes. Fifty percent of the population pays no tax at all...just living, watching, already dead. This is the reason that some obituaries are so short.

Next to my bedside table, I keep my prayer list. For most of the years of my life, it has contained people and things for which I am very concerned. Enough to bring such to the attention of God. I wish I knew my name were on such lists.

My congressman called me one night last week after I had gone to bed. I told him, “your name is on my prayer list here next to me beside my two telephones. I can always reach over and ask Gods blessing upon you. In fact, I asked Gods blessing on all politicians because they have already been judged by God and they need all the help they can get.”

On the prayer list, you can even list those whom you do not like. For instance, there is nothing about Moslems, or the Coran, or religious cults, or tyrannical rulers that I can like. I have neighbors living around me that I do not like. I have some of the sorriest, most useless relatives in the world that no one, with good sense, could like, but they need my love and my prayer brought to the attention of God. I know so many pretenders of the faith, preachers who are imposters. I know prisons are full of lost men and women, homes where there are unloved children, and nursing homes filled with unloved elderly. I have seen poverty, such as the world cannot imagine, and survived such myself. I need to bring all this to Gods attention because only He, in His omnipotence, sovereign power of the universe can change things.

Most people, have no idea about how most of the world lives. Once, some work was being done on my house and I moved for a few days into a duplex I owned (one side was furnished and empty). I was awakened, during the night, from the other side by a man beating his wife. It was the most horrible thing I have ever heard. The Sheriff told me, “don't get involved.” Another time, I made a house call on a patient in a poor section off town. I will never forget, as long as I live, and I can hear it now just as I did then, a young girl being whipped by a father. She was crying and screaming...begging. He kept shouting, “I told you to never go there!”

Yet, in our letter to our blessed Lord, we think God for our senses. Those of you with sight, should be so thankful for being able to see...both the beauty as well as the ugly of the world. Thank our blessed Lord for our sense of hearing, your sense of smell, your sense of taste, and your tactile sensations. Those of you who sleep well should be thankful for that. Think of the many people who never get a good night sleep. Because today's young people have not taken care of themselves, junk food, drugs (both legal and illegal), crazy living habits, in reverse to what has been the normal order, many parents will bury their children. Pity the parent who does not, from the cradle onward, teach sound living habits, responsible eating, and faithfully investing in faith...the ultimate objective of every parent for a child.

In your letter, thank God for the blessings of living. But remember, you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes.

Thank God that you were blessed with appreciation for good music, good books, a good mind that can learn and comprehend the intricacies of the learned world of knowledge.

When one has been exposed to the learning disability of so many people you wonder if those with good minds show sufficient for good appreciation of God given ability to learn, comprehend, to memorize...just to have common sense.
I think of the young people I knew in and out of school who did not have the ability to learn...who could not retain anything and who wanted so desperately to succeed to live in a world of accomplishment. Irma Bombeck, said, “don't confuse celebrity with success, think of Madonna and Helen Keller.” But, even celebrities should be so thankful for talent. Those with talent are so far ahead of the rest of us, even if the talent is no more than just being able to throw a ball or to have the skill to play a musical instrument. There are those who have reached the height of celebrity by just being able to make people laugh...Bob Hope, Bill Cosby, Moms Mabley, etc. They have the sense of timing, the sense of voice modulation (Jack Benny, Red Skeleton, etc) where by they could make a fortune and live better than the Pharaohs of Egypt simply because they were blessed with an unusual talent.

With all your thankfulness, the greatest blessing of God-given-life, is for your name to be written in the “Lambs-Book of Life.” In your obituary, in your biographical information, the most important love you can show to your family, friends, is for them to know, and for you to be certain that your clinical death was just a passing phase of your eternal life.

I went to a funeral, a relative, the son said, “I know dad is enjoying himself in heaven with his cousins”...and he gave their names. I don't know what would lead him to believe that any of them were in heaven. God will not allow any sin to enter heaven and so, with all your planning, make sure of your eternal security.