Redemption

Sunset Redondo Beach, California

January 19, 2014

Redemption comes in many forms.  Even though there is sorrow today we never know what tomorrow may bring.  You see the sunset on your day and you wonder what the night will bring.  Does it bring the peace that you are in so much need of?  Does it bring your fears out of the closet?  Do you haplessly go about your business feeling that no matter what you think or believe nothing will be different in the morning?  When you prepare for sleep the night after that “long” day what are your thoughts?  Do you truly believe that the Redeemer hears your words and feels your pain or are they cast out with hopelessness and a belief that they are falling on deaf ears?

There is Someone out there waiting for your words.  He wants your words to call out to Him and to seek His answer for your questions.  You think to yourself that you have done too much wrong in your life for someone of such Perfection to listen to your words but He wants to hear them.  He wants you to know that no matter how much “wrong” you feel you have committed that He sent Someone to take your place in His Courts.

Picture the cross – One branch of the cross pointing from the earths to the heavens and the other branch spread wide open like your Grandmother waiting to hug you after a time apart.  You see He loves you more than your Grandmother ever could love you!  He wants you to come to His feet and put your fears and sins there and to be hugged by the Savior that went to the cross for you.  When you are in His arms share your hopes with Him and watch the “SonRise”

Sunrise Torrence, California

The Funeral

January 18, 2014

I missed yesterday’s journal running around doing as many weekend errands as possible because this weekend is overloaded.  That is ok because I don’t want this journal to be a “job”, I want it to be something I enjoy doing.

Today was Steve Arnold’s funeral and I was so impressed with the huge amount of support the “community” showed his whole family.  There were 10 year olds that he touched through Children’s Church all the way up to 80+ year olds that he had befriended at church.  Many ex-basketball players were there to support his sons and honor him.  As I told his spouse during the greeting time, today was selfish sorrow because we are going to miss Steve but he is in a much better place than any of us are right now – he is in Heaven with Jesus, God, and all other believers throughout history!  His boys gave a great eulogy as well!

What I learned today is that people come together during funerals and really contemplate their life story when faced with the thought of death and what comes after it!  I am truly comfortable with death and realize that we have much more in store for us after death than living right now.  But right now I am alive and I need to share that same feeling with everyone I come in touch with.  I don’t always do a good job of that, but I am going to go before the Lord and ask for His strength to start “loving” others as I love myself.  One day that will be a post of it’s own but for today I am too emotionally and physically exhausted to go down that route!  Will there be more words about Steve in future posts?  I imagine so!

The First Post - RIP Steve Arnold

January 16, 2014

I read something this week that said if you just wrote 300 words a day you could have 5 novels written within 5 years – they might not be good but you would have novels written none the less so today is day #1 of this “journaling” attempt.  I am interested in seeing how long I will actually continue it.  Today I am going to go to around 400 since this introductory paragraph will take some of them up!

Yesterday I learned about the passing of a very dear friend of mine.  He was not in the best of health but he was still young and has 3 sons.  The oldest is a Helicopter Pilot in the U.S. Navy, the middle is a full time teacher working on his Master’s Degree, and the youngest is a Junior at Marquette University in Navy ROTC.  His wife is a great lady as well and this year they took in 2 International Students from China.  He had also just recently graduated with a Master’s Degree in Human Resources and was able to retire from his “sales” position and had taken a new job with a company doing motivational training work for them.

So what does a good friend mean?  In my opinion, to the male gender, it is someone that you deeply respect and that you don’t need to talk with all of the time but when you find time to talk it is an instant reconnection.  Steve was that type – we would text each other periodically just catching up quickly but not that often.  We often caught up after church for a while – me asking about his boys (I coached one of them in our church league and sort of “mentored” two during their Youth Group years) and he would ask about my children.  His sons are the type of boys that I loved catching up with because they were real and he raised them to be good stock!

We also spent a week together in Newark, NJ a couple of summers ago with our Youth Group Mission Trip.  Steve was our Morning Motivator – his talks always ended with YOU ARE GOING TO GRAB THEM, HUG THEM, AND LOVE THEM UP.  Steve I know when you entered Heaven God grabbed you, hugged you, and loved you up!  You are missed my friend and now you get to motivate the Heavens!