The End of the World

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly.”

-Richard Bach

There were some genuine opinions by some that we all wouldn’t make it past the weekend. The proverbial “Mayan Apocalypse” came and went without much fanfare, without much fuss, without much of any major event in the world, actually.

This perhaps surprised some considering all of the darkness surrounding our world in the past few weeks. The crisis in Egypt. The Connecticut shootings. The Fiscal Cliff. In a time when we are often happier and more joy-filled with the upcoming Christmas holiday, we instead had our attention turned to darkness and evil, bickering and death.

One could argue it hasn’t been a very Merry Christmas, and it would be difficult to counter the argument.

Yet, here we are. Despite so many of humanity’s failings in the immediate past, humanity will carol, will give gifts and many of the less fortunate will be blessed by the generosity of others.

We are all still here, and love will prevail.

That is, after all what Christmas is about, right?

In the midst of the world’s darkness, God lights a light… Himself, as human, as one of us. This human comes in to the world and, through love, makes the blind man see, raises Lazarus from the dead, cleans the leper, and forgives the woman. He fed thousands with five loaves and two fish, calmed a storm by raising his hand and walked on water. By his death, arguably the darkest hour in human history, the gates of Heaven are thrust open, because by His wounds, we are all healed.

Christmas teaches us that the dark hours are pierced by the love of God. We learn that we are not to be afraid of death, but that death has already lost, that love has already conquered.

Advent has concluded. The darkness of waiting and waiting on our Savior is done. He is here. Now. In your home and mine.

May His light shine for you this Christmas and throughout your life.is  May he turn our darkness to light, just like he did 2,000 years ago.

Merry Christmas.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!

Pain

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one.”
-Dean Koontz

I have an acquaintance who is married who is also trying to have children. Recently, he and his wife experienced probably the greatest heartbreak a parent could have. During the third trimester of her pregnancy, my acquaintance’s wife miscarried their child.

Not being a parent myself, I cannot imagine the pain of their loss. They had the nursery ready. There was a crib, clothes, had picked a hospital, etc. Everything was coming together for the couple’s first child. Suddenly, and right before Christmas, their plans vaporized.

This event occurred last week. When I ran into the acquaintance again, I offered my condolences for their loss, not knowing how to offer my thoughts any better way.

“Thanks, but I wish you wouldn’t.”

I was a little surprised by the response. “Oh really?” Was the only thing I could think to say, confused.

“Yeah, I just don’t want to hear it from 14 different people 14 different times.”

I suppose one could be reminded about a tragic event in ways they would not want by having people offer their condolences, even if it was well-intentioned and well-thought. I run into the same problem with funerals, too.

I had met the parents of a teen in our youth group for the first time at his funeral. He took his own life. It was very difficult for many people that I know personally. Many are still struggling.

Again, what are you supposed to say? If you say anything, are you really helping?

Then again, I don’t think trying to put a painful thing out of your mind and trying to focus on something else is helpful, either. In times in my life when something sad happened, I found that putting it out of my mind let it fester and it continued to nag me until I finally came to terms with the fact that I had to talk it out with somebody, maybe even cry on their shoulders over the loss. Time might heal wounds, but leaning on your friends are the stitches.

These conversations are tough, aren’t they? Families don’t want to approach something taboo, especially over Christmas. People don’t want to breach a topic that might induce emotion. People don’t want to talk about something personal and invite others into their vulnerabilities.

Let’s remember, however, that pain is not begotten by cruelness. Simply because there is loss and suffering does not mean that such loss and suffering was the result of cruelty, vengeance, or karma. Part of life is loss.

Let’s remember this when we have opportunities to share our loss with others and when others offer to listen to us. We can take comfort in the fact that if loss is not the result of vindictiveness that solace, too, must come from a kind and humble heart.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!

Waiting

Gun’s Quote-of-the-Week:

“I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.”
-E.V. Lucas

It’s the time of year when kids start to get quite anxious. There is Christmas right around the corner, accompanied with lengthy breaks, new toys and a general lack of responsibility. It’s every college-kid-and-younger’s favorite time of year.

It’s the time of year when people get anxious about the New Year. Perhaps there are reflections on what 2012 had to offer. There is a moment where one looks back on successes and failures and starts to hope that 2013 will offer opportunities for more success, a new job, better grades or perhaps just an excuse to be happy that a disappointing year is about to end and a new one with more promise about to begin.

For so many I talk to right now, they just can’t wait for the year to end. It’s a natural break in people’s lives, and the prospect of a New Year offers them hope. Perhaps they are getting married. Perhaps they a moving somewhere new. Perhaps they are graduating. Perhaps they are starting a new job. Perhaps they just want a clean slate.

You know what a doctor’s waiting room looks like, right? There is a rack of magazines with many different topics, most of which have nothing to do with medicine. My doctor’s waiting room has magazines on trucks, cars and sports. The ladies get to choose from Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and different recipe magazines. There are also the toys set up in the corner for the kids to play with. The waiting room contains a TV playing a national news channel of the office’s inflection.

In other words, the waiting room contains the great adult pacifiers to help remove the anxieties associated with whatever reason why these people came to the doctor’s office in the first place. Nobody wants to wait, but if they have to, they might as well wait with their mind focused on something other than what they are waiting on. It doesn’t just have to be the doctor’s office. Car repair shops have the same thing. So do courthouses.

Life happens in the waiting room, though. Between the phone call and the appointment, the test and the grade, the engagement and the wedding, the first Advent Candle and Christmas Day, life happens. It is perhaps in these moments, those times when we can disguise our anxieties and flush-out our impatience with distractions, which best define how the moment we are waiting for will turn out. We may be tempted to hibernate through our waiting or we may be strengthened by it, learn patience by it and thus prepare ourselves more fully for it. We can choose to be alive while we wait, or we may choose to bunker down like the roses and the insects, not reemerging until the light of spring beckons our coming out of the mud where they live for the winter.

So, while waiting sucks, take it. Live it. Go with it. But whatever it is you do, don’t sit in the mud. There’s a lot of life to live above the surface.

…and that’s why it’s a Gun’s Quote!