Separation Anxiety

Matthew 25:31-40: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

With this much in mind, my heartfelt thanks to those of you who took the time to see how Paige was doing this past week.  It did my heart good to see what excellent friends Paige has in coming by and contacting her. 

The same is true for our friends as well.

It was a difficult and scary time for all of us as we tried to learn just how we would have to deal with this going forward and it's not over yet.

Your actions show that you are truly you are people after God's own heart in doing so. Your support means more than you could know, and I thank God that there are people like you in our lives.

Matthew 25:41-46: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

And now with this in mind, I must say that I am extremely disappointed and disheartened in the church and its leaders once more...it is a shame.

It was painful to watch Paige admitted to the hospital with such a life threatening and life altering condition, and going through so much confusion, fear and pain, especially knowing that so many I felt sure would and should have been there for her could not be bothered to even contact her or to check with us on her condition or to offer their support in any capacity. It was clearly and certainly not for a lack of knowledge about the situation that they stayed away, as they were good to pass the information along that she was hospitalized.

If ignorance were the actual issue, that much I could have excused.

It is interesting to me to note as I read the passages above that the goats are included with the sheep up until final judgement and it is then that they are separated. There is a correlation and a greater point as we examine these passages that I will leave to you to decipher, but I don't believe that too much thought will be required in doing so.

I will say this however, as a parent I have learned that simply "being there" and available in certain adverse and/or celebratory moments is far more critical than we can even know. Our presence or lack thereof is noticed even if we feel it may not be.

If we look at Job in the book of Job, even his friends (who were clearly in the end not even good friends) sat with him for days before uttering a word. I'm sure they must have had other things they should have been doing but they made themselves available.

We would be wise to consider in advance, that once those moments in life have passed they do not return, there are no do overs. What is done is done. How we have responded or made ourselves available in those times does however sends a very clear although perhaps unintentional message to anyone who may be inclined to consider the bigger picture. 

It speaks clearly to the nature and condition of the relationship, and in fact it is probably more indicative about our internal or spiritual condition at that time, more than it might indicate anything at all about where we might have been physically at that time.

Time...it is the one resource we are afforded that is unknown in quantity, but that we mistakenly treat as being unlimited in quantity.

Once more then I am left to ponder...If church is the place I should be, as so many say that I am, I am hard pressed to see quite why I should posses that desire.

d(-_-)b


No apologies required.