The awaited time is now, and “Tide Strider” is ready.
After much hard work and heavy lifting, the lobster traps have been stacked onto the wharf. Buoys and gear are on board. The weather is changing. Let the fishing season begin!
I wonder how much of life is spent “preparing.” We plan meals, social events, weddings, vacations, family calendars; we work out efficient routines for getting our children off to school and ourselves to jobs; we study for exams, for degrees, to develop skills, to become professionals: we prep for interviews, practice for recitals and competitions; we budget, pay bills, renew licenses and subscriptions; we set our GPS’s for best routes to destinations, plan for the future, designate powers of attorney, write wills and try not to leave loose ends to our lives.
Yet life happens and can be messy! Our lives are filled with uncertainty, disruptions, disappointments, impossibilities, circumstances, and surprises about which we have little or no say or control. To avoid chaos, we set priorities but often discover we don’t have the skills or are unprepared to navigate unforeseen material, emotional, or spiritual setbacks.
Scripture shows us what should take precedence in our inner life: loving God with all our being and our neighbors as ourselves. Those precepts fulfill the requirements of the moral law. However, because of weaknesses or ignorance and/or disbelief of what they mean, we all fall short in our ability to adhere to them. We are morally imperfect (sinners) regardless of how righteous and generous we are. That is the reason God in His mercy and grace prepared redemption for all who choose to receive it. Christ in his perfection gives us his righteousness and reconciles us with God if we repent, believe, and accept his sacrifice on the cross on our behalf. He loads life with love, forgiveness, peace, joy ,purpose, and future hope.
We all have beliefs about death and an afterlife. Those may range from no afterlife to reincarnation or to some post-earthly spiritual existence. Jesus addressed this mystery. As the resurrected Lord, he is the only person qualified to do so. He claimed that he is the Way to God and that those who trust him and what he accomplished on their behalf will have life everlasting in a place prepared for them even though they physically die. .
God is prepared, but are we? Are we ready for that final foray into the most impactful but mysterious journey of our lives? Do we trust His redemptive plan?
Sweet Words from Maine 