Tag: Encouragement

The Sign of the Cross

It said, Ride On, Rest in Peace. A simple wooden cross, stuck in the dirt on the side of the road marked the passing of a life from this world to the next. What a modest way to say this person has taken the next step in their journey through eternity. It is a journey so many have taken but so few are willing to consider.

The Passing of Life is Holy Ground

We look at a cross and see it as a symbol of death. The cemetery is a grim reminder of our view of the cross. It is a sign that someone’s life is over. Our immediate thought is about how they died and the family and friends they left behind. It doesn’t take long to start thinking about our own mortality and what we would leave behind. If you are like me, you may even wonder about the life to death process.

Almost 150,000 people die per day worldwide. The impact of a loss reflects the depth of our relationship. You may read the obituaries and not be moved at all by a person’s passing. You didn’t know them, so why should you be touched? But what if you see the obituary of a friend on the paper before you? How would that make you feel? It is generally accepted that our parents will die before us, so composing their obituary may be very moving. And God forbid, what if your child passes before you? Then you would know the depth of pain that is shared by those who live outside the normal order of things. The pain of death connects those who have shared it.

When death touches us, we are reminded that the passing of a loved one is a special event. Relationships captured in photos, videos and untold memories of days gone by flood our minds and fill our hearts. It is a time to reflect on the best of our relationship and sometimes the worst of the one we lost. It is a time to consider whether the worst was really that bad.

Death is one of the few times we are closest to seeing past the veil of this life. The closer you get to death, the more you realize what is important.

Just as the well of love that God has given us has no earthly bottom, so too can our grief be. A child mourns the passing of a parent for years. A man marks the death of a best friend on each anniversary of his death and on his birthday. A parent suffers the pain of losing a child and carries that wound like they are holding their baby child. The passing of life is holy ground.

Symbol of Life

While we see a cross as a symbol of death, God sees it as a symbol of life. We cling to life as if there is no tomorrow, but God has made a way for us to live forever with Him. God has a way of turning our perspective of death around and forcing us to see it from a different angle. He took our symbol of death and made it a symbol of life.

You know Jesus Christ and His story. It is the story that rises above the rest. It is the story of His birth, life, death and resurrection. Every December 25^th, you celebrate His birth and every Easter you celebrate His resurrection. His is the story of true life. It is a reminder of the love that God has for you and the life He has waiting for you by simply believing in Him.

The apostle, Paul, was a sinner and violent aggressor, yet the Lord used him to demonstrate His perfect patience towards sinners so that they might be saved. Taken from 1 Timothy 13-16. In the same way, the Lord uses each one of us to demonstrate His patience towards sinners, because He desires ALL Men to be Saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. He wants to save everyone from eternal destruction and separation from Him. In Heaven, He will wipe away every tear. There will be no more sorrow and no more pain because the former things will have passed away. We will live forever in joy, peace and inexpressible happiness on the day our veil is removed, if we have made a choice to believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. He is, the Great Redeemer, Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace. Don’t let disbelief cloud your choice.

We are the Family of Man

This life connects us and weaves our stories together. Death finalizes our story and passes it on to the next generation, but death does not need to end that connection. God made us Eternal Beings and meant for us to keep our relationships forever. And we can, in Heaven. We will know each other forever, but in that place those relationships will be drenched in peace and harmony. It will be the best of times.

Are there people that have made a difference in your life? Perhaps someone in your childhood who shared a special bond with you? If their journey took them from this world before you, then know that they aren’t gone forever. They are simply waiting on the other side for you.

There is an hour for each of us to die. Do not be afraid of that hour, because it is what you have been created for. Not to dwell here on this world forever, but to learn, to grow, to build family, friendships and earthly connections that will continue into eternity. You were born to be eternal. You were made an eternal being. You are eternal. The sign of the Cross says it is so.

November 12, 2022
Vale Removed
We are a community of eternal beings, confined to an aging body and are called, “Mankind”. We are on a journey called life and we are taking this journey together.

This life can be difficult. Between the truly devastating events of our lives and the daily grind that wears us down little by little, we face an assault that can erode our faith, peace, love, kindness, understanding, patience and forgiveness.

There is a Bigger Picture

Everyone needs encouragement to remember there is a bigger picture. If we step back and look at that bigger picture it will help put the world around us into perspective and allow our feet to stand on the solid ground of hope.

I don’t have all of the answers for why each person struggles and suffers and I am not a psychologist or a counselor, but I do have words of encouragement that will help you remember you were made for something greater.

I love stories. The circumstances of our lives are the fuel for the stories of our lives. More simply, what happens to you and how you respond is what paints the story of your life. Many of those stories are of faith, healing, restoration, forgiveness and redemption and they are beautiful. God loves to see those stories unfold as the years of our lives take us on this journey. Those stories also help your fellow eternal beings understand they are not alone in their trials, tribulations and joys.

Little Nuances in Our Day

What really fascinates me are the micro stories. These are little nuances in our day that can be seen from time to time if we are paying attention. It takes practice to recognize them, then it takes believing to understand they are from God. They are small testimonies that Jesus Christ loves you and is actively involved in your life. Learning to understand what micro stories are and how to see them is one aspect of this blog.

I will share one of my own micro stories. It has to do with the name of my blog “Vale Removed”.

Vale Removed may seem like an obscure name at first. Why not use the word, Veil, as in a transparent covering used to put over one’s face? That’s a good question and the root of my story.

When I first began writing, my goal was to start a podcast. My son, Andy, who has a successful podcast, gave me a lot of pointers. He helped me understand things like conception, planning and execution. Among those tips I was to make a list of names that would reflect the content of my podcast. Andy wanted me to find a name that I could use for all of my platforms in social media as well as my website. Having one name would make it easier for people to find me on each platform. Over time I decided that a blog better suited my path so I altered my work.

I made a list of over 20 possible names. On 3-12-20, as I was about to start researching those names to see if they were available, I spoke with Andy and he encouraged me that if my name was taken, I could change the spelling of the name to fill my niche. I said OK and made a mental note, just in case.

The next day was Friday the 13^th. I was supposed to be working early that morning, but because a fellow employee needed help, I switched with him and worked the late shift, which gave me the whole morning to research names. My list of names was far too short I realized as I crossed each one off quickly. In no time I had exhausted my list and wondered, what next? I decided to go to my notes and look for inspiration there.

A Life-Changing Year

The previous year had been a significant and life-changing year for me. I made many entries into a journal of my thoughts and observations hoping I could understand where the Lord was directing my heart. I trusted that in time, my notes would allow me to look back and find a common theme that could point the way forward confidently.

I scrolled to the top of my entries and began reading through each one. Most entries were brief and I moved through them easily. I had hardly begun when I saw a line jump out at me. It began, “The veil is being removed.” I reflected on the passage and came up with Veil Removed. It fit perfectly. My hope for the blog was to encourage people to look past what they know about their daily lives and see something more. I checked the name and was discouraged to find it was not available either!

I got angry for a moment. Why was this so hard? How could so many of my names be taken? Then I remembered Andy’s advice to change the spelling. I decided to change the word Veil, to Vale, even if the word meant nothing. I checked the name and discovered it WAS available. I thought, of course the name was available, it meant nothing so who would use it? Then, I looked up the word, Vale, to see if it meant something just in case and was surprised to find that it did mean something. It means; a valley, the world, or mortal or earthly life.

I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to help people look past their earthly life and find an eternal perspective. Vale Removed summed that up perfectly. My path had led me to the right word.

We Are Eternal Beings

I decided to read the whole entry. At 2 paragraphs, it was one of the longest entries I had made. The first paragraph turned out to be what has been on my heart for the past year. There are 3 core points.
1. We are Eternal Beings made in the image of God.
2. The Lord’s Harvest and gathering His children is what matters.
3. You are God’s children.
The second paragraph reflected the deep conversation of my heart that had gripped me for over a year. It said, “We will live forever, but we will be held accountable for neglecting others because we are clinging to the comfort and security of our own lives.” This paragraph confirmed what God and my son had been encouraging me to do; get out of my comfort zone and get busy.

I had spent a lifetime building a career, taking care of my family and finding ways to make myself more comfortable. It is our nature to want comfort but I for one can take it too far. Those words along with Andy’s encouragement and God’s moving in my heart, were a dictate to me to start serving others. I just didn’t know how I could help anyone.

I work in retail, so my schedule changes every week and too often, leaves me scrounging for time. I was like a beggar, asking for moments here and there. It was God, working through Andy, who gave me the key to move forward.

Find That One Thing

Andy had been encouraging me to find that one thing in life that was important to me and to change my habits just a little so that in time, I would accomplish something instead of nothing. He said, even writing a few words a day would amount to a book over time. He taught me to create a morning routine and showed me how that routine would make me successful in my endeavor. He was right. I found what I was looking for.

Both paragraphs summed up the reason I was on this course in my life, but it was the date of the entry that really spoke to me. I wrote my original entry on 3-21-19. I realized, if you switched the 21, it becomes 12 and it was on 3-12-20 that my son had encouraged me to switch the spelling of a name if that name was taken. By taking my son’s advice on 3-12-20, switching the 12, I found what I was looking for on 3-21-19.

Some would call this a coincidence. Others refuse to believe it means anything. I believe it is God showing me that He cares about what I am doing. God doesn’t always speak to us audibly. But, like the beauty in the world around us, God has left testimonies, big and small, for us to see and remember that He has created everything and that He is with us every single day. We are never alone or separated from Him, even on the worst days of our lives.

Through others and the circumstances of my own life, God has brought me here to share my heart with you.

I will leave you with this week’s encouragement. Of all of the stars in the Universe that are beyond counting and all of the days of our existence to the beginning of time, there is no one like you. You are unique, you are special and you are loved deeply by the God who created you. It is not about what you do. It is about who you are. There is a reason you are called a human being.

Vale Removed is a blog that looks beyond this life to the next. Join me each week as we examine the world from an eternal perspective and find words of encouragement to remind us that we are meant for something more.

He will walk you home if you give Him the chance.
March 19, 2022
You Are Beautiful

How often do you think about you and your life? Dale Carnegie in his book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” says we spend about 95 percent of our time thinking about ourselves. In all of that spent mental energy, you have probably considered your failures more than a few times. If you are like me, you want life to be perfect and you hate the blemishes that you see. This may leave you wondering about life and where you are going.

Perfection

A person’s goal is usually to seek perfection about themselves. There isn’t a soul alive that likes failure. This goes back to Adam and Eve. When confronted by God about their choices, Adam blamed his wife, Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. No one wants to be told they are at fault. Often, if you call out a person’s failure, that person will flat out lie to protect themself.

Our failures can weigh us down in the secret person of our heart. You try to hide them because you have been told those failures are ugly. If you hear your faults enough, they can make you feel ugly on the inside. You dwell on what you think is ugly and begin to believe it. The weight of blame can be crippling. Dwelling too long on your mistakes will eventually rob you of your peace and can attack your mental health.

Let’s say for a moment that you are perfect. You bridle your tongue always saying the right thing. After borrowing something from a friend, you always return it. At work, all you do is perfect and never needs improving. In fact, you never make a mistake. I think we can all say this is not realistic, but if it could be true, how boring! Sure, it would be nice for all of us to live together in peace and harmony. As a society, we need peace and harmony. As an individual on a daily basis though, perfection is rather anticlimactic. Let me show you why.

Imperfection

There will always be failures, mistakes, accidents and general wrong choices in your life, but the beauty of those circumstances is that they are what tell your story. If you are perfect, what is there left to say about you? Can you imagine the conversation?

“Did you hear about the guy who is perfect?”

“No, tell me about him.”

“I just did.”

Really, what else is there to say?

I remodeled a 100-year-old house. In all of my work on the home, the problems of the modifications are what I share most with others. I rarely talk about the finished home. If you walked through my home after it was done, I would tell you about the blocking in the eaves that wasn’t nailed and how a bird was nesting on the insulation above the kitchen addition. I would tell you that the original home wasn’t insulated. Then we could discuss the wiring and how the old wire was spliced into the new wire improperly.

You can be happy in a perfect home but what is its story? Don’t you talk more about the failures and how you overcame those failures to get your home to where it is now? It is like that with you. The mistakes you make are what paint the story of your life, not because they take you down, but by how you overcome them. These are the shades of grey, blue, red, green, yellow and black that paint the picture of your journey.

Your Story

What good story doesn’t have adversity? Aren’t we moved when adversity is overcome? So too is God moved as you overcome adversity. For proof, just look at the people in the Bible. A few examples are Joseph, who was made a slave, Moses murdered a man, Elijah was afraid, and Peter denied the living God. Your failures and how you overcome them are the story that God sees. That is what He talks about. Have you never rooted for the underdog? How many stories are there of someone coming from behind to finish well?

Did you know that God is a Master Craftsman? You are the work of His hands. Your life is a tapestry that hangs in the greatest hall in the universe. It is the Great Hall of Heaven. Are you aware of the stains in your own tapestry? He makes those imperfections part of the tapestry. You may not see the beauty because you are looking at the back side of that tapestry. God sees the beauty because He is looking at the finished work on the front of the tapestry as He works on it and you. Your tapestry is eternal proof that you have overcome and that you are an overcomer.

You don’t have to be perfect. You may make poor choices in this life. We all do. But it’s not about the poor choices you make. It is about overcoming those choices and learning to make better choices. It is about reaching the finish line. Maybe you have a poor running form and won’t come in first. In the race to eternity, it doesn’t matter who’s first. It matters that you make it. Jesus Christ is waiting at the finish line. He wants to tell you personally, “Well done!”.

Imagine Jesus speaking with you. He would say: It doesn’t matter how dirty you’ve been, where you have wandered or how bad your language is. I don’t care that you have turned from Me your whole life. Have you met the thief on the cross? Can you tell which one believed in Me? I do care, that no matter what, you will spend the rest of Eternity with Me. I created Eternity for you. I made a year for every moment you have suffered, a year for every abuse, a year for every tear you have cried. Until you have forgotten the reason for your tears and the painful years you have endured. Forget what is behind you. Look at Me. I see the child you were created you to be.

March 5, 2022