I lost a friend to death this week. The poor and broken lost one who championed their wellbeing. The world lost a dreamer who got out of the clouds and actually dug his hands into the mud of living.
The sting of death burns hot. It sears into the depths of our hearts, piercing souls that were made for much more than what this broken world can satisfy. We don’t have to pause long to know that we were made for more than this…
But we take heart, because we know that the hope of heaven, and the hope we have in Jesus is greater than the burns of this earth.
Make no mistake though, burns leave scars.
And as my friend Tim Willard says, “what if we view our life’s scars as beauty marks?”
If we live in a way where burns become the things that point to testimony of God’s goodness and redemptive power. Where beauty isn’t defined by what we see, but by how we become.
I want to live broader than the way life seems so often. To step into the things that are broken, but set my eyes on the things above so they don’t get dusty from looking at the dirt below my feet too long.
“We want to break free from the temporal and live from an eternal perspective…. Step out of the shadows and into the brillance… to meet the God of the mysterious.”
The God of the mysterious….the God who makes sense of the seemingly senseless. The God whose wonders never cease.
There are things in this life that will never make sense, and I don’t want to die on the hill of useless striving to understand that which is beyond my understanding.
I want to step out of the shadows and into the brillance…into our Home Behind the Sun…. and I want you to step there with me.
My friend Tim has a book releasing next week that invites us into the brillance…into the sunlight…into the journey. Grab it now and thank me later as we soak up the sun of a great God together.
Also, please join me in praying for and lifting up my precious friends at Pure Charity as we walk to find the sunlight in the midst of loss that feels so utterly cloudy.
Into marvelous light I’m running
Out of darkness, out of shame
By the cross You are the truth
You are the life, You are the way
I once was fatherless
A stranger with no hope
Your kindness wakened me
Awakened me, from my sleep
Your love it beckons deeply
A call to come and die
By grace now I will come
And take this life, take Your life
Sin has lost it’s power
Death has lost it’s sting
From the grave You’ve risen
Victoriously*
*lyrics from “Marvelous Light” by Chris Tomlin
I am so sorry for your loss dear friend. It is this Hope of Easter that gets me through the burns of my own brother’s passing. One day we Will see them. It will all make sense. The wrong will be righted. Alelujah!
Death , whether sudden or expected after hard fought illness…hurts. Lifting you up as you look for the light Logan.
Jesus has scars on his resurrected body and his father thinks He is beautiful.
“So your eyes won’t get dusty” – I love that imagery!
Logan…I set aside some time this morning to catch up on good stuff I’ve been missing since I’ve been behind (like your blog ;)). So…even this is no accident of timing. I am sorry about your friend, sweet friend. I have thought of all of you mourning Josh many, many times in the last couple of weeks. Struggling lately under wave after wave of news of untimely death, wrestling with God (sore hip and all) and culminating in a raw and personal journal post this morning where I lay it down and choose Trust….God is so good to use your wounds to minister to mine. So many….nuggets…I will be chewing all day and then words that tell me to (lovingly) get off my butt: There are things in this life that will never make sense, and I don’t want to die on the hill of useless striving to understand that which is beyond my understanding.
Thank you for your words. Sure would be nice to sit with you for about 12 hours on a plane right now 🙂