Deep Questions

 I think I’ve told you before that I like to sit out on our back patio when the weather allows, and just watch nature, along with the people who go by on the walking path in the park behind our house.  I especially like to go out in the evening and watch the twilight come and darkness…well, as much darkness as can be had in a city…fall.  Things gradually become more quiet, more subdued, and one feels more closeness, if you will, as darkness invades the day.

We have a decent amount of traffic on the walking path in the park.  Kids on bicycles, people walking for exercise, a few runners, families out for a stroll, people exercising their dogs, and the occasional rider on a horse go by.  During the quieter moments, deer often will come up close to the fence and wander along it because the grass is shorter there…there are no trees in that narrow strip of land, and it is easier for them to navigate to and from food and water.

Squirrels are nesting in trees close by, and sometimes come into the yard for a drink out of the fish pond.  Once in awhile I see a garter or bull snake sauntering along in our back yard, or that of our neighbor.  And the birds are always, it seems, there in some fashion.

Recently, I’ve begun to wonder about the people I see.  I know many of the children, if they live to a normal old age, will probably see the turn of the 22^nd century.  I wonder what life will be like for them then, and in the intervening years.  I see older kids, and wonder how they’re doing in school…what home life is like for them…and how they see the world and their place in it.  I see adults, young and old, and wonder what they think and believe about an afterlife…about God…about their purpose in life and living.

I wonder if the young woman walking with the two-year old will go home a little later to an abusive partner.  I think about whether the teens may have anything illegal on them…weapons, pills, and so on…and what their home life is like.  I have to also wonder how those teens are getting along socially and how well they are maturing into the kind of adults the world needs right now.

These are admittedly deep questions that I can’t answer, and even if I stopped someone and asked, probably wouldn’t get an honest answer.  But I know things can’t be all roses and rainbows for these folks.  It isn’t for me.  It isn’t that way for you.  And it isn’t that way for them either.

We all have issues…physical, emotional, relational, mental…that keep poking at us, reminding us that we are fallible and frail…not in control of our lives nearly as much as we might like to think.

I was reminded of that just today when I read a Facebook post from one of my friends who lives several states away.  She used to live in Wichita where we got acquainted, and for a time worked together, but she moved a few years ago.  Her post said that tomorrow she was going under the knife to have a new pacemaker implanted, as the old one was eleven years old, and it was time for a new one.

This woman is at least 25 years younger than I am, has a busy, full life, family, and friends.  I had no clue when we knew each other in Wichita that she had a pacemaker or had need of one.  Just looking at her posts, one would think that the rainbows and unicorns were dancing all around her and her life.  And at times, that may be true; but there’s that “thing” always in the background that reminds her, and me, that life isn’t perfect.  That there are always thorny places and uncertain times in everyone’s life.  Her pacemaker is a great example of that, because without it, she may well not be alive today, or if she was living today may well be an invalid, unable to work or be as productive and active as she now is.

If you just look around a bit, you’ll see mothers who have miscarried, people who have lost jobs, families in financial crisis, children who are mentally ill, victims of abuse, generationally dysfunctional families, many who are afraid of death and dying, victims of bullying, racial bias, or poverty, those who are despairing of life and contemplating suicide, people with chronic physiological ailments, those who are addicted to pornography, pills, or gambling, along with a host of other societal, human, and life-and-living ailments and issues.  Undoubtedly, you fit in one or more of these kinds of categories.

But I don’t want to leave you in a funk about life and living.  There is hope.  There is relief.  There is blessing.  Look around you.  There is beauty.  There is good.  There is hope.  And those things point to, for those who will accept it, the promise of God made through Jesus the Christ.  The promise that all will be made right.  Death and decay will be no more.

 

I pray that you know the Everlasting God and that you come to Jesus Christ for healing and peace.

 

Blessings,