Remember, the birth of Jesus who later became our gift of eternal life is alive and dwells inside in the form of the Holy Spirit

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10

When we are down, He lifts us up. When we suffer in the throes of sorrow for a loved one who left us way too soon, He is there to carry you. As pain encroaches you He will fill your mind with the assurances of heaven. He breathes life into you where hopelessness once reign.

As you go about trying to find meaning in your life, Jesus waits patiently on the side hoping you will come to him. Whether it is burning incense or reciting mantras or cleansing your body of toxins, He wants no one to perish. He waits patiently while occasionally using others alive in Christ to utter words of hope into you.

He wants you to know that He's alive while the other so-called gods have died and remain buried. So many have followed false prophets without finding the true Christ. He wants you to find the true Christ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_JesusChrist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus

The real living Jesus is as close to the living gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John! He is literally standing at the door of your heart waiting for you to acknowledge his presence in hopes you might open up that door to allow him to come in and experience life where once darkness, guilt, and sin prevailed.

All you have to do is cry out to Jesus and ask him to come into your heart just as Revelations 3:20 reminds us: 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Yes, Jesus is alive!

Do not fear" is said 365 times in the bible. That's one for every day of the year! ♡

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.I will strengthen you and help you.I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.Isaiah 41:10

Tonight, I joined my wife at Heritage Christian Academy for a great time singing Christmas songs and seeing a one-man drama. I was blessed by the Music performed by some of the Heritage choir and orchestra students, and I was blessed by this one man drama entitled 'Celebrate the Child' performed by Jonathan Swensen. There was one scene that brought me close to tears when he was saying goodbye to his child that died. I choked back tears reflecting on the night years earlier where, like the actor in this production, I too said goodbye to the little girl who left us much sooner than we had like.

When the production was over I walked over to the guy who played all the characters of the production and told him how that one scene brought back memories of our loss. I shared the God story from that first Sunday our family went to Church for the first time without our daughter when son thought about what I had said before it occurred to him that going to Church to honor our Lord should never be based on how we are feeling at the time.

Ten years later my son texted me and asked if I remember that conversation we had. He said that was a pivotal moment in his life because he was angry with God for taking his sister, but then he said:" when I saw that my dad wasn't going to quit, he wasn't going to quit either." The thought occurred to me that your children will do the things you do. Our job as parents is to show our children what it means to honor God when we do not feel like it.

At that point, Jonathan said that before he was born his parents lost a child and he remembers when they went to the gravesite how broken up they were- 30 years later- when they broke down crying as though the wounds of their grief were still raw. Then he said," it doesn't matter how old the child is when death occurs because there is nothing that prepares a parent for outliving their child.

As we talked, I learned that his ministry includes doing drama for grief workshops, camps, etc. My mind at that point started thinking all kinds of possibilities about pulling together an all-day conference on grief and including drama, music and encouraging teaching from those 'who've been there'.

Whether we know it or not, our God is in absolute control of our lives. God's greatest gift was sending his Son into a hurting world filled with people looking for a purpose. We may feel miserable walking into Church after the loss of our loved one, but the same Jesus who escorted your loved one to heaven is the same Jesus walking with you, and sometimes carrying you, through your journey of grief.

Because of that thought, you have reason to not be afraid of the cascading emotions broadsiding you and have a reason to celebrate the birth of Christ!

Moving forward, the new normal, the reality that happiness and sadness can coexist

Job 5:11 (NKJV)He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

This week, my wife and I hit a major milestone toward our new normal when we hosted 3 couples to our home for our Lifegroup meeting.  This may seem insignificant to many, but the reality is when loss of a loved one occurs you become so enameled by that loss that you can easily close off your home where it becomes a literal human cocoon. Yet, when I glanced at our families guest book prior to 2007 it was filled with pages upon pages of visiting friends.  Hosting people was something that I missed.

My relationship with my living Savior, Jesus Christ, helped me to transverse across all of the emotional upheavals of my grief until the emotional roller coaster starts evening out with only the occasional 'hair-raising blip'.  This week's grief share presented many stories of those who developed this new normal.  One dad, who taught business at Virginia Tech on the day of the mass shooting that took his daughter's life, said that he took on a new mission of taking missions trips to Haiti and help with raising the funds for school buildings in his daughter's honor. 

Another individual described getting involved in the Grief Share ministry and helping others heal from their grief.  In every case, there were people in the midst of their pain now further along who are now smiling and telling jokes like they did prior to their loss

It is so easy, it seems, to want to grab the nearest liquor bottle and drown your sorrows when a loss occurs. Yet, when we do, it opens up another 'pandora's box leading to potential DUI offenses, going into debt to pay attorney's fees, divorce, homelessness, job loss due to absenteeism, and the list goes on. As I and others have discovered with our journey, God does keep his promises by giving you this new normal

This is why it is so important to choose the right 'worldview'.  To choose God's free gift of eternal life through the gift of his son, Jesus Christ, will give you someone who will whisper God's promises into your ear, or through Bible verses that this pain is temporary and that He will stay with you for however long it takes to develop your new normal. 

The decision I made to accept Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of my life was perhaps the greatest decision I made for my life, and the means to help me reach the new normal of my life. 

How about making it yours?