Gospel Re-Formed

As we celebrated Easter, I pondered what it meant to be with Jesus on the day He died. Jesus and His disciples gathered together that night in order to take the Passover meal, in accordance with scripture. This was a time set aside to remember the day God passed over Israel. God, desiring to rescue His people, was bringing judgement to Egypt through the death of all firstborn. Death was literally coming, but the blood of the sacrificial lamb above their door was the sign that His people believed that God would save them. Those with this mark would be passed over from death. The next morning His people were alive, but the first born of the people of Egypt were not. God redeemed His people. Each part of the seder meal was meant to reflect this time. As Jesus passed the wine to His disciples, they would have remembered that they are sacred to God. When they washed their hands they proclaimed that they were clean. As they tasted the bitterness of the vegetables in salt, they are reminded o...

"How are you doing?" The question everyone asks, but one that is hardest for me to answer because it can mean so many things. You could be asking how am I doing physically, such as are you getting enough sleep? Are you taking care of yourself? Do you get out? What about emotionally? Are you depressed? Do you have someone to talk to? Do you need to vent? It could be asking about where I am in my journey of mourning. How are you healing? Do you still miss her? Or it even could just be a generic platitude, just say fine and move on. If you are in a coffee shop in New York and the guy's name is Joey? It could mean an entirely different thing all together. But I guess that is the nature of the question, it can mean any, all, or even none of these things. That is probably why I ask the same question to people and also why I usually give a vague answer, such as "Doing OK". Don't get me started on how to interpret this response! Over the last few months I have been ...

The night my beloved wife passed was difficult, but also beautiful. Over the previous week I could see her slowly slipping away, like a deep fog was covering the world and her face was slowly disappearing into the cloud. No matter how much I reached for her, she would continue to fade out of view. As the week went by, she was sleeping more and more, unable to even sit up with help. By Thursday night, she had not fully waken the entire day and her eyes could no longer open completely. I would sit by her side and look at her feeling helpless. It has already been a few days since I talked to her. Did the final moment to say goodbye already pass? When it was time to sleep I noticed her breathing was short. I went to grab some linen from upstairs so I can sleep by her side on the couch in our sunroom. By the time I came back downstairs, she was gone. In that moment, it felt like a dream. Was she really gone? I sat by her side waiting for her to start breathing again, checking her pulse over...