We Don't Understand...But We Do Believe

"Funny the Way It Is" written by Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard, David Matthews, LeRoi Moore, Boyd Tinsley and Tim Reynolds

Lying in the park on a beautiful day
Sunshine in the grass and the children play
Sirens pass and fire engine red
Someone’s house is burning down on a day like this
And evening comes and were hanging out
On the front step and a car goes by with the windows rolled down
And that war song is playing “Why can’t we be friends?”
Someone is screaming and crying in the apartment upstairs

Funny the way it is
If you think about it
Somebody’s going hungry
And someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is
Not right or wrong
Somebody’s heart is broken
And it becomes your favorite song

The way your mouth feels in a lovers kiss
Like a pretty bird on a breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings a building crashing to the floor
Hear the laughter while the children play war

Funny the way it is
If you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school
Another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is
Not right or wrong
On a soldier’s last breath
His baby is being born

Standing on a bridge
Watch the water passing under me
It must have been much harder
When there was no bridge just water
Now the world is small
Compared to how it used to be
With mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars

Watch the sky
A jet plane so far out of my reach
Is there someone up there looking down on me?
A boy chase a bird
So close but every time
He never catch her but he can’t stop trying

Funny the way it is
If you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school
Another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is
Not right or wrong
On a soldier’s last breath
His baby’s being born

Funny the way it is
Not right or wrong
Somebody’s broken heart
Becomes your favorite song
Funny the way it is
If you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school
Another’s dropping out

Standing on a bridge
Watch the water passing under me
It must have been much harder
When there was no bridge just water
Now the world is small
Compared to how it used to be
With mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars

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He always told me my blog posts were just way too long. So, I know he would love this one already.

My friend John has transferred his membership from the church temporal to the church eternal.

Very early this morning, he went to be with God. We had discussed this topic many times before, and I know that he was ready to go. There is a great, deep, "peace that passes understanding" in that knowledge...but of course nobody in his family, or his church was ready to let him go.

Times of loss can be times filled with questions. Why now? Why not before? Why him? Why not me? How long do any of us have? How do we go from "here" to "not here anymore?"

John's life, like all of ours, was placed in the loom of time, and its fabric was woven by more than mere fate. The decisions of our hearts, and especially the decision to live a life of faith, makes all the difference.

John was not perfect. And he would be the first to tell you that truth.

But he was a child of God. He was redeemed. He was being transformed (sanctified, or "made holy" in the Wesleyan sense).

He had a wonderful understanding of an essential truth about church, and Christianity. It's not a place, or a religion that should become a club superficial saints.

John knew that this is a faith for recovering sinners. And he welcomed everybody.

He lived with the tenacity and zeal that you'd expect of an alumnus of the 101st Airborne. The lessons drilled into him at Toccoa lasted a lifetime. And he taught some of those lessons to me.

I'm better, and further along my path of faith, for having known him. And he will be missed.

Someone asked me recently (and it's the reason I shared the song above), "Adam, do you ever wonder why things are the way that they are? Do you ever wonder why things happen? Do you ever say 'why me?'"

So, let me answer for all of you reading this:

Of course I do.

And I believe that God is very much ok with that.

Lots of folks in the Bible wondered all kinds of things. We don't have the mind of God. This world violates our sense of justice. This is a "veil of tears," and a world filled with loss and hurt.

But it's also a place full of joy and beauty and possibility. I know that the dark places of a life are just as necessary for its beauty, as are the bright and glowing colors of good times and happiness.

Do I understand that? Of course not. Do I accept it? I try to, and I'm growing closer all the time.

Life is good, and it's a gift, and it's worth really being here and paying close attention.

Listen to the hope we find in I Corinthians 15:19-26 (The Message)

If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.

There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ.

But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father.

He won't let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death!

Yes, it really is "funny the way it is." But the funniest, and most amazing, and most hopeful part of all is that there is redemption and resurrection.

I definitely do not know all the answers. I urge you to think twice before believing anyone who claims that they do.

But we do know the most important truths.

Our friend John is not lost. There is a grace greater than death. There is pain, but there is even greater hope.

There are always questions, but there will always be One who holds the answers. He is "Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End."

Behold...Jesus died and is alive evermore...and because he lives, we will live also.

Grace & Peace,

Adam