Lord, Forgive Us

This weekend has been a kind of a roller coaster for me. Normally, I’m rather even-keeled, at least to the casual observer. However, some things have happened to upset my cart.
I visited a friend who now is in the nursing home, and is not expected to live long. She has taken a rather sudden turn downward, and the spiral has just continued on. She and her husband were members of our church, but joined with another church in the community a few years ago. Seeing someone decline in this manner brings time for pause in one’s own life.
In reading the obituaries in the newspaper over the weekend, I learned of the passing of a friend and relative by marriage. Barbara was a compassionate person, and although she had her share of pain in life, always had a smile and kind greeting. The world was a better place in Barb’s circle of influence. We will attend the funeral later today.
One of our life group loved-ones had surgery a week or so ago. Last night he had emergency surgery to repair a “leak” in the internal suture site and to clean out the abdominal cavity. He is very ill and recovery will be a long, arduous process.
All of these things and more continually remind us of the brevity of life and the fragility of our health and well-being. I fail to understand why anyone would think they have the world by the tail when they are literally seconds from a cardio-vascular event, tragic accident, or debilitating personal setback.
The passage in Hebrews which says that Jesus Christ “upholds all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3) is probably a little more literal for me than for many. I take that to mean that in the course of events, it is Jesus who enables me to “live and move and have my being” as a Godly elder often used to say in prayer in the small church where we worshipped for many years. I think he was on to something in that we exist as we are because it is Jesus Christ who enables that…a conscious, active working in the creation (and in our lives) to make it (and us) what He wants it (and us) to be. And that without this active effort on the part of Christ, we would not even live, let alone “move and have our being”.
These things kind of put everything into perspective, again, for those of us who tend to lose sight of the truly important things in life. When we become much more concerned about the guy who cut us off in traffic, or the winner of the latest reality TV show, or whether we’ll get to see the latest blockbuster movie before it comes out on DVD than we are about love for God and loving our neighbor as we do ourselves, we’ve lost our perspective.
Lord God, forgive us of our selfishness and conceit. Teach us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you.