On Wings of Eagles

Sunday, September 22, 2019

If You Could See Me Now (HD) A blog post in honor of a first cousin who lost his wife to cancer

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:2-3

Yesterday was a day of helping Joel remember his wife who fell to the ravishes of cancer just a week before. This 'celebration' was held at their home in Rush City, Minnesota. I enjoyed seeing Connie's pictures displayed on a large table in his home and listening to the story of how they met. Joel and I were the cousin's closest in age and hence we often hung out at the few family reunions my family went to over the years. Joel's dad taught his two sons how to hunt and fish and how to shoot a hunting rifle. He developed a love for the outdoors whether it was on a lake, in the open field hunting deer, or building homes as a contractor- so it wasn't surprising that he met his wife at a cabin.

I was lamenting his loss, just as he lamented with me that there wasn't a day that he didn't stop thinking of my daughter Maria. He was there in 2007 at the funeral home in Anoka waiting in the long line to see our daughter.

As I tell people I meet, we live in a fallen world where bad things happen to good people. In a more perfect world, there would be no cancer, nor would there be pain medication that would lead to the death of a loved one following their 'routine' orthopedic surgery.

'If you could see me now' are lyrics that should bring all grieving people to comfort because it reminds us that our loved one is now in a beautiful place, a place that all of us will be one day because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross of calvary for all of our sin's.

When we lose a loved one after spending so many years with that person it will take time to recover from the pain associated with that loss. This is where faith plays into it- to continue one's commitment to a local church, one footstep at a time, regardless of how you're feeling from moment to moment while trusting that God understands what to do with your pain is the secret to grief recovery. I've learned that it is when we are broken that God speaks closes to us.

For anyone experiencing the emotional heartbreaking pain, I would encourage you to find a 13-week grief share group near year. Grief share will teach you how to go through the pain, not around it.

https://www.griefshare.org

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Every child, regardless of disability or race deserves the chance to show what they can do in the eyes of God.

9 As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2 And HiThe human will is often stronger than one disability. Over the years, I found this concept true when working with young and older adults with a physical, mental or severe learning disability- when you give people hope by reminding that they can do it, many will rise to that level.

When a child is born with a disability, we look for professionals and services to help them overcome their barriers.

It worries me that the same propaganda Hitler mouthed off in the pre-world war two days is once again rearing it's ugly head with the talk of designer DNA, cloning and using selective abortion to eliminate what we do not want. It is my humble opinion that we're playing God and making decisions we're not meant to be making.

In Nazi Germany, propaganda and a deteriorating economy, lead Hitler set up concentration camps and send anyone that didn't fit his mindset of a perfect race to the gas chambers. It all sounded good at the time- to use those sanitarians to house the war injured instead of the severely disabled. In an article from the Catholic culture is this statement, "The juxtaposition of severe economic constraints, crowded asylums, the attachment of levels of economic viability to human worth, and the sense that people with disabilities formed a burdensome and often criminal element in society all significantly added fuel to ethical debates concerning euthanasia and sterilization. By the late 1930s, there was an open discussion among many asylum administrators about actually killing inmates"https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7019

The Catholic church is under attack, but I know from experience that it is the worldwide catholic orphanages, run by our nuns, that have been a refuge to children.

In one case from that era, they described the Knauer child as a frail child with several severe disabilities ( their opinion). While the case has become quite mythologized, it seems that she was blind, without one leg and part of an arm, severely mentally retarded, and suffered from chronic convulsions (Friedlander, 1995; Lifton, 1986; Proctor, 1988). Her father petitioned the Nazi authorities to grant her a "merciful death" but received no official response. Subsequent to this request, in the winter of 1938-1939, the Knauer child was admitted to the University of Leipzig's pediatric clinic after attending physicians discussed her plight with her persistent father. Aside from the child's obvious physical and intellectual disabilities, the father asserted that the child, by remaining at home, was causing his wife significant psychological and emotional stress. He requested that the physicians proceed by "putting it to sleep." Initially, the doctors refused, reminding the father that such action was against the law. Undaunted, the father, encouraged by the child's grandmother, petitioned Hitler directly to sanction the child's death (Gallagher, 1990).

Arguably, the persistence of this one man became the catalyst for official genocide.

In my own editorial opinion, I wondered if the boy's father had looked into himself for his wife's unhappiness he might have discovered that he was indeed the problem, not the Knauer boy's disability. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIjZ7Hbi7Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz8ge4aw8Ws

Meanwhile, on this side of the ocean, there was a lady by the name of Margaret Sanger who started her own propaganda machine by maliciously referring to blacks as worthless human beings. She founded the Birth Control Society which later became Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion machine this world has ever seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYNFoB3d0P8

All told, Abortion was the number one cause of death worldwide in 2018, with more than 41 million children killed before birth, Worldometers reports. As of December 31, 2018, there have been some 41.9 million abortions performed in the course of the year, Worldometers revealed. Since the Roe v Wade abortion decision there were a total of 60,069,971 abortions committed.

All told, 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust (1.1 million children). 6 million of those victims were Jewish. It is so wrong when we place an economic value on human lives with the non-disabled receiving the greatest value.

In John 9 are these words:9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Within each human life in this world is the potential of God's holy spirit to take root in their soul and help that person do mighty things despite their disability. All it takes for that to happen is for the person to say, "yes Lord", please come into my heart.

Just as one man changed the world by convincing Hitler to kill his son, there was another man, who entered the world as God's son who took this vicious vile sin upon his shoulders and died on that cross for that sin and gives hope and life to all who receive Him

Through Jesus Christ, we have the hope our changed lives will literally change the world. By now, I hope you have picked up my pro-life stance and I am. I believe in the sanctity of human life in the womb and I believe that every child deserves life regardless of their race, creed, or disability just as it says in John 9, 'to have the works of God displayed in them.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

The evolution of a Sunday school class at NHC-Joint Heirs became Homebuilder's became Life builders

Linda and I were fortunate enough to have stable jobs in the same city, unlike countless others who must pull up anchor to look for their next uncharted territory. We've been blessed to remain in the same church through the years, using our spiritual gifts to edify the body of Christ.

When we were first married in 1988, we knew we needed to be involved in an adult Sunday school class with other like-minded couples. A few of us met with one of the pastors and soon after, joint-heirs was started to encourage the body of young married couples as they start off on a new path together.

When this group grew the class had to move into a slightly larger space. As our group got larger through the addition of children and new homes, the class changed their name to Homebuilder's with a Sunday new's bulletin called the 'blueprint'.

Our class was made up of individuals who used their spiritual gifts to edify the body of Christ- from the greeter at the door to the one doing the announcements to those who were good at finding speakers to edify the body of Christ with messages from God's word.

As our children aged, we began to witness health problems and deaths of good friends. One moment we are celebrating another year of marriage with them while the next moment we are at their celebration of life service.

Life, I've learned, isn't always fair, but I've also learned that our Lord is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and He is the anchor for my soul.

As our children left home to go to college and we began to experience the empty nest syndrome, our group once again evolved and became Life builder's to once again edify the body of Christ to help their relationships become stronger through some of the fiercest storms.

If I could close my eyes and see the invisible world, I would see Jesus walking by our side, sometimes carrying us, as we navigate those storms of this life.

What if instead of people leaving the Church for other seemingly more fruitful churches we ask God to reveal to us our spiritual gifts and a ministry to use our gifts? Maybe, they will experience the blessings of watching others grow in their faith through the use of their gifts.

In God's kingdom, there is no such thing as unemployment- God will use anyone willing to practice their spiritual gift in the body of Christ.

Helping people with the grief process

This blog was started to give this dad the means of processing the loss of his daughter, Maria. At the time of her death, my two children were attending Meadow Creek Christian school, now Legacy Christian Academy. I wanted my blog to give my son a vivid example of what it means to grieve, to help my 12-year-old son cope with this loss. I dedicated this blog to my wife and son and to all others who have experience unimaginable grief. It was our hope in Christ that kept up going attending New Hope Church where we received the loving support from many in this congregation. In my journey, I've learned the importance of trusting that God knows what to do with the pain of losing a loved one.