Palm Sunday

On this Palm Sunday, I am writing a small message to all.  I am also attaching a picture from a wonderful time I had with my youngest son and a co-worker. 

We were building a 1/2 mile road in the mountains of north Georgia to a property we had. Before the stroke and recent virus, which is killing small business like ours faster than the disease itself. Since we build roads in Florida, this was interesting being in the hills with different construction methods, especially since we used no engineering just some rented equipment, a tape measure, and a $19 permit from the Union County public works dept. An old guy, 15-year-old kid, and a devoted employee cracked this ½ mile road in 5 days built to Georgia specs with one 15 minute drive-by inspection. Take that Army Corp of Engineers! Lol. I guess now, if I wasn’t old and stroke debilitated, we’d be building sites for emergency hospitals instead of being sequestered in our home in Florida. Those were the days my friend I lament the end of them.  Anyway, here’s my little message.

Whether or not you are a “believer,” a struggling seeker, or a non-believer, maybe this will be of use to you, especially if you are a member of the depressed minions or rather a new veteran such as me.

Historical Jesus is an indisputable fact of history, but what is unique to those with faith is that He didn’t just die on the Cross but overcame it. His human side suffered pain so horrendous and the heartbreaking ridicule, that exceeds anything we can imagine, he still could love us humans so much that he gave his life. Jesus knew a better place awaited him, going boldly into Jerusalem to face the trials awaiting him. He asked God that if He could arrange to have him escape this trial, I despair, please do so but if it is your will, I will go on and voluntarily do your will and die a painful and beaten death so that all the rest of humanity can follow me into my home with you. Jesus wasn’t a martyr but was on a mission. He submitted to the task going into Jerusalem, knowing it was the end, but his human side probably didn’t comprehend the horrors that await him.  Probably nervous and distraught just like we feel when we think it’s all closing in on us. He went anyway. We can have the same courage if we just believe in Him the way He believed that Abba (daddy) would bring him home when all man’s cruelty played out and ultimately was futile. 

This virus may kill some of us, and the economy will probably kill more, and the trials we face will be severe.  But if you can at least muster some hope remember that through our distress and yes whining no one in history had a bad day like Jesus did and he suffered and came through it even if it meant his earthly life which he put up to show us the way. We whine when we have to put up collateral or personal guarantees for loans or purchases. He laid down His life to purchase something that lasts for eternity with no recourse, just belief.  Christians believe that he was God in human form. What is amazing to me is that God let it happen, and his own human free will chose to do this because it was God’s will, and he cried just like we do when faced with what he was going to go through on Friday. If you believe in God or the science allowance for a “Supreme Being,” this creator loves us and wants us who he created marvelously with free will to come back to him and love us more.  He suffered on that Cross to show us that Satan will be overcome and that just ahead after we live out a life of flawed but the goodness of the heart life, it gets a whole lot better JUST BELIEVE!

Being gripped with depression doesn’t mean I don’t believe. But it teaches me what it must have been like in that lonely garden in Gethsemane. All his human friends went to sleep while he wept and wanted some human comfort.  We are no different, my distressed friends, but he asked for his disciples to stay and watch with him. We ask and try to rely on our friends and family to be there and understand, but they can’t. They’re just human and limited.

Jesus is always there even though we think many times he’s not or even exists at all.  But he is all I have had as I have stated in my previous posts, that He has pushed the devil away from me.  All I had to do was cry out in his name.  The filthy coward (Satan) retreated just like the terrorists do when we righteously stand up to them and defeat them one episode at a time.  How can you not love someone who gives his life for you and just asks us to believe in him?  Such a simple task, yet so hard for anyone who doesn’t have their way.  Shunned for your good deeds or feels discouraged or depressed. One of my ex-wives and a recent follower of this blog has gone through the horrendous ordeal of rape.  The scars last forever, but remember, Jesus’s scars remained as well, and  He overcame just believe in him. What he did, and a level of mental healing will change you and allow you to forgive just like Jesus did on the Cross. “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”

How can we not forgive and pick up our lives and follow him?  As he said, “there will trouble in this world, but if you let me inside, nothing in this world is greater than you and I together (paraphrasing from John 16:33).  If you have been taught to be self-reliant, like I have growing up in the Midwest, notwithstanding that noble and God-inspired way of living, you can’t do it alone. You need divine help so, put your pride aside and ask. That’s called prayer for those who aren’t used to doing that.  We Christians are often criticized and ridiculed by secularists, and other “religions for saying Jesus is THE WAY” It sounds exclusive but not so.  It is the door, and though narrow it’s open to All, and if you spend all your time searching for nirvana, trying to scale the walls or building your own tower of Babel, your wasting a lot of earth time taking the long way to God’s home. It’s the quickest way “home,” but we have to head straight for the door and maybe quit thrashing around in that cornfield from my earlier posts.  God loves you all. Be on the lookout for Jesus; He’s a lot closer than you think.