2018 is one quarter completed and what have I done? This is a question that resounds in my ear almost every day as I look back at January and forward into my future. Sure, I try and make the New Year resolutions of exercising and being a good person.. But have I don’t any of these things? Yes and no. Like most, I start out strong until life gets in the way and things fall along the wayside. Then, I get disappointed in myself and I try to pick up my tattered resolutions and move on. Hoping to start again strong, and ending my year strong and successful.
What I don’t see or fail to understand is that every day I am blessed with a new beginning. This Easter weekend I looked at the history of the Jewish people with regards to the Passover and I looked at the Christian faith with regards to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I saw the evidence of new beginnings.
The children of Israel left their lives of bondage and ventured into the desert towards the Promise land, a land flowing with milk and honey. As they prepared for that journey God told them to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and lintel of their homes. When angel of death sees the blood he will pass over the home and spare them from death and judgement.
The Christian’s author is Jesus and He was taken and crucified as the perfect sacrifice. He died for the sins of the world, was buried and on the 3rd day He rose from the grave and then later ascended to Heaven. Resurrection is a new beginning, and this season is the perfect opportunity to see things fresh.
Some people don’t get the opportunity to see the newness of life as a good thing. Tragedy, pain, emotional stress, failed and disappointing goals and relationship are a few things that can cause the darkness of depression to seep into life. Life becomes hard to bare and the future looks so grim where any thought of a new beginning with hope and happiness becomes elusive and impossible to envision.
Recently, I heard of a number of families in my Christian community losing a family member to suicide. When I was a child the word suicide never came up and if it did then everything was hushed up and “this doesn’t happen or shouldn’t happen” were whispered. Today, suicide is still happening and in my Christian community it is becoming an acceptable ending.
This is not right and Christians need to talk. We need to look into what mental illness is all about and we need to look for those signs of mental illness in our families and not take things for granted. Some people need help and don’t know how to ask or maybe they don’t know where they could go for help. I hear people saying they need to go to the Lord and read the Bible more. That is very true and I am not disagreeing. But as in the times of Jesus, people brought those needing to be healed to Him. Some of the sick could not come to Jesus themselves but needed some kind of physical support. This is what we need today not just physical but emotional support. We need to support one another in a healthy way by being there when someone needs to talk. We need to be trustworthy. We need to look into resources and ethical information for people going through problems and the families of those touched by this suicide to turn to. We in the churches need to be educated on the right way to deal with this problem of suicide. This is not the time or the place for a gossip mill; this is someone’s life. Jesus said, “I came to preserve life.” As Christians we are to be like Christ and to preserve life.
This is a new beginning one quarter gone of this 2018, a time to make a fresh start for myself as well as for others.
this egg was painted in Punic a language known by the ancient people of Carthage. The tradition of painting eggs goes back to Africa some 60,000 years ago. It was a symbol of death and rebirth
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