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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The After shocks of Grief






2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ


Ever been in an earthquake? The kind where you felt the floor actually shake below you?
When glasses fall from the the shelves and break?
Making a mess?

We have friends in California that know what it is like and they tell us that a strong 
earthquake will be felt several days into the future in what is known as
aftershocks.

There is another form of aftershock.
The kind that occurs after a traumatic event.
Memories from that event may linger on as though the event just occurred.


When it does the solution is to seek out a trusted listener and
tell your story of that event over, and over, and over again
until the memory of that tremor is 
no longer
felt.

I am pretty sure that the eyewitnesses to Jesus Crucifixion 
felt the aftermath of memories long after that event.
I know I did.

As a father who lost a child I felt like the recent 
Ferry boat captain,or the captain from that 
cruise ship,the Costa Concordia, who were the first to 
bail while leaving thousands to die.

And I wondered,
did I abandoned my children when disaster struck.


The aftershocks that linger makes me doubt. 
The aftershocks become like lies from the devil.


The same lie that caused Jesus's betrayer to hang himself.
My son reminded me years later.
That he saw in his dad

a man who refused to quit.
His faith was made stronger because of the aftershocks I endured.


There is hope.

Just as the verse in 2 Corinthians implies, we ought to take 
captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.


Every thought.
Every memory.
Every traumatic event.

And turn over to Jesus Christ, the one who bore our sin on the eve of his 
crucifixion 

In time.

The aftershock will become part of your story that will lead others to 
Jesus Christ. Embrace it. Hold steady. A brief moment you will feel

your world shake,
but things will return to normal again.


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