Welcome aboard once again. I guess I’m like most of America now, when I wake up, I reach for my phone. I use it for an alarm clock, so if it hasn’t gone off, I reach over to cut it off. Most times I beat my alarm or just instinctively rise before the appointed time. So, today when I reach over for my phone, there is a notification in the text messages that a death had occurred. I have this very dear friend, who had just lost his brother in law. We had been praying for him, he took a fall down a flight of steps, and never came out of the coma. I bring this up because I’m not a big funeral guy, and it’s amazing that at my age, I’ve only been to about a dozen or so. See, out of the dozen or so that I’ve been too, two of them have involved this friend of mine ,Steve. We are in a men’s Bible study together and out of the dozen guys who attend off and on, Steve is the only one, who is an only child. All of the rest of us have at least one sibling. So , when boys will be boys and we joke and rib one another, Steve is the only one who will immediately apologize for any little jab. Most of us just know that it comes with the territory . Steve and I have walked through a couple of health concerns together and his folks think of me as a brother from another mother :). So about six years ago when he lost his one and only son in a senseless shooting, of course I was there with him. And again last summer when his father went home to be with Jesus, I was there as well. When I say that I don’t do funerals, I mean I’m not one of those people who goes to a funeral if I just casually know someone. They have to mean something to me or to someone that I’m close to. . I believe in supporting people in their time of need or grief and I’m extremely sensitive to that. The Bible talks about professional mourners, and I guess if you have no loved one to fill that role, then it is probably a good thing that those people exist. My mom is in her mid eighties now, and her people circle group, seem to go to funerals in packs, that’s probably not the best term to describe it, and I know that it is something that comes along with age. I think it odd, because I feel as if she has been doing this for the last thirty years or so. And , yes it’s true that she has a much larger sphere of contacts than I do, and much of that has to do with me being a dude, and by that I mean men don’t cultivate relationships at the pace that women do, and the rest is by choice. See for me the part that is a little creepy, is that they go and critique the service as if they are looking for ideas and pointers about when there grand send off will happen. . Personally if you aren’t going to be here,, what difference does it matter, what takes place and in which order. My mom sometimes talks about going home, and I think that is just part of the natural process as you get older. I know that she has had all of her planning for the time, in order for many years. She further goes on about not leaving a mess behind for us to clean up, and let me just say that I would appreciate that greatly. I don’t mean any disrespect by that , but my mom lives in a really big house all by herself and it’s loaded with stuff from top to bottom. On the sweet side of things probably a lot of warm and wonderful memories, but on the dark side, she could do an episode on that show,” Hoarders”. I may be slightly exaggerating but there is no shortage of clutter. I get it , kids, grandkids and she even has a half dozen great grandkids as well. She has had a full life and I won’t begrudge her a little clutter. Funerals as a whole are usually sad, and I get that, but for those of us who know God and cling to His promises, it should be a party. It’s a home going service and should be celebrated, as in getting off of the hamster wheel and checking out of the rat race. I don’t know if it should be done on the level that it is in New Orleans, but they do know how to do a send off, regardless as to where the person’s eternity will be. I mean, its a party, complete with a band and everything. Funerals just have away of making you think about your own demise, and all of the scary stuff that comes along with that. I mean for the believer, it shouldn’t be scary because you know where you are headed and what is waiting for you on the other side. Believers greave from a different vantage point, and for the loss of not being together, it’s not out of Hopelessness and the fear of the unknown. We know that we will see our loved one again, and that should gives us great comfort and peace knowing that we will see them again. I look forward to seeing my grandparents again and a few friends that I have lost along the way, and of course my baby sister, who felt she had to jump to the front of the line. I was in Florida last week visiting my daughter, and I was chomping at the bit to visit their church and to see what kind of spiritual food their pastor was serving up. Of course when she first told me that they had found a church I immediately got online to checked it out, as I did with all of the churches that they had visited . There is no equivalent to see first hand with your eyeballs to make sure it lines up what I saw online. I don’t remember the pastor’s name, but he was solid with his Arkansas accent and most importantly biblical. You may be wondering, what this has to do with a post on funerals and I’m so glad that you asked…everything. it’s what he was preaching on, he was being a good shepherd and encouraging his sheep to check themselves and to make sure that they actually posses the salvation that they think that they do. Say what??. It’s an extremely valid question to ask and yes the Bible speaks to this in several places in the new testament. See , if you can go from Monday to Saturday, without any second thoughts about God and what He wants and how you represent Him, then you probably don’t posses what you think you do. If you can operate the whole week without Him, and believe that you can just straighten up on Sundays, then you may want to do a double take in the mirror. How can I put this another way? If your god is a genie in a bottle and you only rub that magic lamp during times of trouble, then the pastor’s sermon last week, was specifically for you. If God is not a part of your day to day, then He probably isn’t going to be a part of your eternity either, I know harsh, right !. The Bible is full of bad things, much like our world today, wars ,murders, genocide, dysfunctional families, you name it, and it’s in there, and yes much sexual sin as well. Ok, so what’s the point? The point being, one of the saddest things in all scripture , to me is when judgement day comes and Jesus says to your face, away from me, because I never knew you. And don’t think just because you are a good moral person who tries to live by the golden rule, whatever that is, that you will just get a pass. I’ve said it countless times, it’s not about religion and rituals… it’s a relationship, do you hear the words coming out of my mouth .RELATIONSHIP!!. I’m not real sure how we got here, but I’m sure it’s all related somehow, and I’m probably pretty capable of putting a nice little ribbon or bow on it for you, if that is what you need.:) . It’s important to remember that funerals are not the end they are the beginning of where you will spend your eternity, and just incase you don’t grasp the gravity of that one single solitary word, you will be there, a lot longer than you will be here. I know that there are a few of you out there who are wise crackers, so just let me cut you off at the path. I know that I said that I don’t do funerals and yes, I’m aware that I will be the guest of honor one day, we all have that appointment on a certain date in the future. Funerals can look differently from culture to culture and some of it may seem strange to us. Sometimes they can look valiant, such as in a movie with Vikings and they push them out in the water on a raft, and then they shoot fire lit arrows in the sky to set the raft a blaze. Regardless of whatever your reference point is, whether something quite slumber, or something closer aligned to the Vikings, the important take away is that, it’s the beginning and not the end.
