Faith, Hope & Love
For various reasons (including giving a talk on the Book of Job), I have been thinking about death and bereavement recently. In particular, about what Christians might have to offer in such situations. Not just Christians, perhaps, but that was my starting point. I ended up by organising some brief thoughts on the themes of Faith, Hope and Love:-
Faith: the trust that whatever you are going through, God is there with you and will see you through. And if the person going through it is a non-believer then your job is to be their faith for them – to hold onto the firm belief that God is somehow in this situation, however bad things may be or may get – and to be Jesus’ presence for God. Even if they cannot see Jesus, they can see you. How can you be Jesus’ heart and hands and feet and voice for them?
Hope: bereavement is for a season. That season may be cold and hard and lonely, but for those who belong to Jesus there will be a reuniting: relationships built on the foundation which is Jesus will endure. How can you prepare, ready to hang on to hope when times are bad?
Love: how can you show God’s love to someone in real need? Quite likely not in words, they are so often inadequate, but maybe in simple practical actions (what do they find difficult? do they like home-made cake?), or maybe just in being there.
I see Faith, Hope & Love as elements of what you've gotten from following
Christianity. I agree with what you said in the microcosm, yet I don't
think we see things the same in the macrocosm - dealing with identity. But
I can live with that! ;]
Seeing things from different viewpoints is good, isn't it? ;)
I like what you said. Very simple, yet articulate. I think that just
being there for someone and making good on giving them anything that they
need (within reason) goes a long way, no matter what religion (or lack of)
they have.
Hi Pimme, it's nice to hear from you again.