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One thing that I enjoy in life is doing different things.

I remember driving to work and finding that every day began to look the same.  I started to take a slight detour on the way – just a block or two without causing any great delay.  Amazing how life perspective changes.

These next few weeks will be that type of jog around another block.  I’m looking forward to working with my wife on some painting jobs she has.  We will visit relatives and perhaps see the beach of a lake.  Although we call this holidays, in some ways these are just different ways to breathe each day. 

And I look forward to how this will spice up my life in this next while.  Now the question is, will this be hot chili or soothing vanilla!

We had set the time for a game of golf.  My step-son and I were to end up on the links for nine holes.  This was to be a time for him to learn more of the game, and for me to enjoy swinging a club once again.

The day opened with cloudy skies that opened to the sun off and on.  By lunch time I was hoping for enough time without rain to get us on and off the greens without incident.

So, around 2:45 we headed to the golf course.  Of course, there was only one threesome in front of us – with an electric cart.  And at the first burst of rain they were off. 

We sat in the clubhouse for a few moments waiting for the rain to subside.  Some moments passed and we stepped onto the course.  The manager had called and told the staff no one else was to be allowed on the course.  We were told we could try the course, but that a raincheck  was available. 

Two holes later we were soaked to the bone, had driven a few good balls, and in the end had a tale to tell. 

And maybe that’s what golf is all about! 

This is the story that arises in our lives.  Not what we have done to impress our world.  But what God has done to bring us into the “next world.”

I say this because I’m living most often these days among those who are older and soon to be stripped of life in this world.  I buried an 83 year old today.  I visited a 99 year old recently.

Our talk is not of changing our world.  Our talk is of a world to come, of the aches and pains of this world, of family and friends whose situations in this world are a concern to them.

Seems to me that life is best described as God working in and through us.  The more we let him sway our thinking and actions, the more we come aboard His desires and direction.

Bluntly put, and without a desire to become fatalistic, God will do what God purposes.

Coming on board with God means that I get to partner with God in the happenings around me.  And nothing could be better than that.  I purpose to shine light on God and God then shines light on me.  Pride of life has nothing to do with who I am, and everything to do with who God is.

A slight reversal to how our world views life.

But then, I’ve always been one who saw life from upside down!!

There is a certain place in life where life on earth is no more.  For those past saints (and sinners), life is in a new format.  And, in Christian Theology, a new body and new format of life is yet to come.  In between there is a blessed time together with Jesus, but certainly a longing for a reunion with both others and our bodies.

That is the type of thought that makes a Sunday funeral worth considering.  For the years  of my ministry and time involved in the church, I can’t remember going to a Sunday funeral. 

Today, in a sense, is a new beginning for me.  I will conduct a funeral service where we will inter a body in the ground with a sense that on resurrection day, that person will have a new body.

This is all based on the resurrection of Jesus – celebrated each Sunday in our services.  While other faiths may concentrate on a Friday or Saturday or another day of the week (and our own Christian writers tell us to be sure we don’t turn the day of the week into an idol), Christians use Sunday to remind us that Christ is risen.

And because he is risen, we too have a confident hope that we will arise to a reunion with Christ and others. 

A great message for a funeral service taking place this afternoon.  I’m looking forward to this!!