Death Heals

Mostly because of our ministry in nursing homes, Glen and I have attended quite a few funerals.  Some of these dear ones who have passed away were leaving behind a physical life of pain, discomfort and loneliness.  For them, death was the ultimate healing.

In fact, death will be the ultimate healing for all of us.

At the most recent funeral we attended, the preacher said this, "We are all desolving.  Right now, this minute, you are desolving."  We are all headed to death (apart from the returning of the Lord Jesus in our lifetime).  It is inevitable.

But it is not bad.

After nine months (more or less) a baby is evicted from the womb by the force of labor.  The baby leaves everything it has known, it leaves sure provision and comfort for a new world it knows nothing of.  Birth, for the most part, is the envitable conclusion of conception.  But once the baby is in the arms of the mother, I doubt a single one ever longs for the days of the womb.  They breathe air for the first time, they see colors and shapes they have never known before.  They smell, they hear clearly, they touch and are touched.  They know love in a way they could have never imagined in the womb.

The day will come when each of us is evicted from this life to another.  We do not cease to live, but as our dear friend Tom said after my Daddy died, we just move to "a better neighborhood."  We begin to live, indeed.

We will know life as we have never imagined it here.  We will drop the robes of pain, discomfort, tears and loneliness as we fly into the arms of "Joy unspeakable," Peace which "passeth all understanding," and "Love which passeth knowledge." 

In a moment, a twinkling, we shall be healed.

Acclimated

I did not get to walk Sunday.

 I was on-call for the hospital and got called in just at the time we normally have for walking.  I did however, experience some of the effects of my six months of walking.

Once I arrived at the hospital I found out I had been called in to be the scrub nurse on a Cesarean Section.  Since our unit has temporarily been relocated (while the hospital builds us a brand new obstetrics unit) we no longer have our own operating rooms.  Instead the Cardiovascular surgical department has been gracious enough to "loan" us one of theirs.  It is in the building next door, one floor higher.  This means to scrub on that C-Section I had to go up one floor and walk about 1/3 of a mile to reach the CVOR.

Once I got there, I was busy rushing about trying to set things up before the patient -- and more importantly, the surgeons -- arrived.  The operation had barely begun when I felt what has become common to me lately, sweat running down the middle of my back.

It seems I have become so heat acclimated that the slightest bit of heat or physical exertion, causes my body to produce sweat.  So there I was, in an operating room that feels about 50 degrees, sweating.

"Through reason of use" my body has been exercised to become more efficient at dispersing heat.

As Christians, we can become acclimated as well.  As we throughout our lives read the Scriptures and hide them in our hearts, we become more acclimated to the how of dealing with temptation.  "By reason of use" we exercise our sense to discern both good and evil.

It reminds me of what a dear young man we know said when he was just a boy, "Satan tries to make good things look bad and bad things look good."  How true, Sterling!  But as we become skilful in the word of righteousness, we begin to discern what is God's way and what is the lie of the enemy.  We become acclimated to righteousness. . .our spirits become more efficient at choosing rightly.

Let us all have it said of us that we are "of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil," (Hebrews 5:14.)

Alive Again

I never noticed how many palms there are in our city until we started walking.  Some are tall trees, some are more bush like, and some are in between.  They are not a plant I generally care for, but in some instances they look just perfect.

The ice-storm we experienced this past winter was not a pleasant thing for these palms.  In fact, as we walked through our city  afterward, I was saddened on more than one occasion by the apparent death of the palms.  Their fronds had become a mass of brown and I wondered how the various land owners would deal with the loss of their plants.

Then Spring came.

I began to notice something very interesting about the palms.  They didn't look so dead after all.  It first began as a cone shaped thing coming from the center of the palm.  Looking closely, I could see the hope of palm fronds to come all bundled together in this mass.


The center cone became larger and larger as the days passed.  Then the individual parts began to blossom.

Finally, over the weeks, the tan blossoms turned green. The palms were back.  Many of them look healthier and prettier than before they were covered in ice.

The Lord built into that palm plant the how and when to renew itself, to be alive again.  The plant didn't do it for itself, God put that in there.

As those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He has put in us the how and when to be "alive again" as well.  In fact, He has accomplished the death and resurrection of our inward man Himself, our only response is faith.

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:" (Ephesians 2:4-6.)

We were dead in our sins without the Lord, and He quickened us -- He made us alive in the spirit-- and bonded us to Himself.  He raised us up and has set us with Him in heavenly places.

I love the old word "quicken."  It means alive.  In an obstetrics sense, a woman is said to have experienced "quickening" when she has felt the baby move. . .she knows by what she feels the baby is alive.  When we come to know the Lord by grace through faith, we know that we are newly alive as well.

The Apostle Paul describes our quickening more fully in Romans:

"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?  Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.   

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.  

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.  

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:3-11.)

Like the palms that to me were dead and are now alive, in Christ we have been created as a "new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."  (2 Corinthians 5:15.)

Let us live in the joy and truth of the resurrection that the Lord has wrought in our very hearts.  We are no longer that "old" person, but we are new with hearts that  "delight in the law of God after the inward man," (Romans 7:22.)

Saturday, July 5, 2014 6:15 PM

6.0 miles
86°/Feels Like 91°  57% humidity

We parked at Catherine Street again tonight so that we could walk downtown without going into double digit miles.  It was a very pleasant evening for a walk, the humidity was low and there was a constant cool breeze blowing.

We followed Government Street to Roper, and that corner is where the house is Glen likes so much.  We walked along Roper in what is called the "Oakleigh Garden District." I love walking in this part of town because of all the old, historic homes with such lovely architecture, beautiful columns and spacious porches.

We turned onto Palmetto and went to George Street.  Even though Cream & Sugar is not open this week, we wanted to go by and see when they open next week.  

After checking at Cream & Sugar, we walked to Broad Street and crossed over to enter what I normally think of as "downtown."  We went past the Big Zion AME Church and I enjoyed looking at the beautiful stained glass windows there.  

Then we walked down Cedar Street, a place I don't think we have ever walked before.  We walked up Cedar Street, Monroe Street and Lawrence Street.  These streets are interesting because they have mostly newer houses that were clearly designed to maintain the flair and flavor of the old homes.  The great predominance of brick gives away their younger age.

Spanish Plaza

Next we came to Civic Center Drive and walked along the west side of the Civic Center.  I have tried for several years to remember where my college graduation had been located, and passing the Theater of the Civic Center brought it back.

We walked across the street to the Spanish Plaza where we sat and ate some nuts and had some water.  We walked down to Jackson Street and then headed North to Government Street.  We kept on Government Street until we were back at Catherine Street and our car.  As we approached the parking lot, the sky was filled with beautiful blues, pinks and golds.

Our route for this walk.