‘I Wish You Enough’

 

      This was sent to my wife and I, by very close friends, who are moving away. After sending it back to them, I felt that this was important enough for all of us to hear and appreciate. To reach as many people as possible, I thought it best to include this on The Stepping Stones. It truly reflects human love and affection. And, no matter what religion is practiced these human values perfectly fit within our hearts. The email is copied in its entirety:

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Recently I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure.
Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the father said, “I love you, and I wish you enough.”
The daughter replied, “Dad, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Dad.
They kissed, and the daughter left. The father walked over to the window where I was seated.  Standing there, I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?”
“Yes, I have,” I replied. “Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?”
“I am old, and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is – the next trip back will be for my funeral,” he said.
“When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, “I wish you enough.” May I ask what that means?”
He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” He paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and he smiled even more. “When we said, “I wish you enough”, we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.” Then turning toward me, he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I  wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish  you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.He then began to cry and walked away.
  They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them; but then an entire life to forget them.
Only if you wish, send this to the people you will never forget and  remember to send it back to the person who sent  it to you.  If you don’t send it to anyone it may mean that you are in such a hurry that you have forgotten your friends.
 TAKE TIME TO LIVE….
To  all my friends and loved ones,
I WISH YOU ENOUGH

 

 

Music in Your Soul

      How softly Johann Strauss’ On the Beautiful Blue Danube begins. It gathers strength and purpose until it reaches your soul. There it swirls around and dances with you, sometimes playful, but always purposeful. Gradually, you feel at one with the music and find yourself wanting to move with it. At that point, it has you and lifts you to heights you have always desired. I often have felt that composers, capable of writing songs that are beautiful and majestic, provide us glimpses into their very souls. Like painters and saints, they have the capacity of reaching out to their God, and in so doing, provide us glimpses of Him, as well.
      Knowing that all analogies fall short let’s compare music with love. Music, in the mind of the composer, has a purpose, be it to bring you joy, or beauty or something else. Whatever its purpose, though, it is always something positive. A feeling of sorrow can also be positive, as long as it is not intended to leave you there. Music, when performed as the composer intended, lifts you up, plays with your feelings, and delivers you to a better place.
      How does love compare with music? True love, not the love portrayed on so many TV and movie screens today, true love seeks out goodness for someone else, never self. When a person feels a love for someone else, their own spirit is joyous. They may feel light and airy, or they may feel quietly happy. Either way, the goodness that they feel is deep inside them and can’t wait to express these feelings to their beloved. When you feel this love, you know, not only that it is true, but that it will be beneficial to both persons. It is never one sided.
       Christ has this love for us, you and me. When I see a picture of Christ smiling, for some reason, it touches me so much more than one of Him suffering, or performing miracles, or anything else. The smile that He has seems to convey to me His fondness, His love and His concern for me. Strangely, it is at these times, I realize how I fall so very short of being able to return His love. Knowing His love is there for us, though not demanding anything in return, how very much I desire to love Him. His smile, His love picks me up and dances with me.
      Knowing His love is there for us, realizing it is continually there for us, we are invited to join Him. Once we recognize His love, once we see how it is freely given then our love that we return to Him takes on a deeper significance. We are loving someone who gave His life for us. We are loving someone who asks us to become Him. Our love for Him has grabbed us, awakened us. How can I say I love Jesus, if I do not love my fellow man? It is impossible. No excuses. No golly gees. That person is of a different color. That person is dirty or slovenly. That person is not charitable. That person is downright evil. All the people that we have difficulty with… we must love, have a true concern for their growth, their sickness, their lack of morals.
      Christ came into this world, for sinners, YOU and ME. Our expectations that others clean up their act, goes equally for ourselves, as well. With this love that Christ brings us, it swirls around us, it lifts us up, and it makes us better than we ever dreamed. We are then, finally, caught up in the music of love.

The Resurrection of the Body, and Life Everlasting

Welcome Home

(15^th in a series of a presentation on The Apostles Creed)

      Man was created both body and soul, both physical and spiritual. He was placed on this earth to live and enjoy the beauties of this world, the beauty of God. God did not put man on earth to live for just a limited time and then die. No, man brought this on himself. “When did this happen”, you ask? It happened the moment man chose to follow his own wishes and not God’s. At that exact moment, the need for redemption was born. The sin happened in time, thus redemption must be completed in time, in the physical world. In the resurrection of Jesus, God’s original intent for mankind is fulfilled. We were created for a bodily existence. In a bodily existence we turned our back. And so, in Christ’s bodily existence, we are redeemed. His resurrection, a victory over death, told us we were back on track.
      Our own resurrection would take place after our death. This is not speaking only to the soul, but rather to the whole person, as he had been created. Both body and soul will be re-united, trumpeting the victory over death, as God had intended it, all along. These are not just words. Man’s first sin brought sickness and death into this world. And so it is still today. We do grow old. We do get sick. We do die. But Christ has shown us, through His resurrection that belief in Him is to believe also in our own resurrection. “And every one that lives, and believes in me, shall not die for ever”^-1   All of this is predicated on our living and believing in Jesus.
      We cannot stop here, though. Our bodies rising and re-uniting with our souls is a pleasant enough thought….but then what? Tied closely to this is “Life everlasting”. We are coming close to speculation here. But what is heaven? We all can close our eyes and imagine what heaven might be like. Strumming on a harp and sitting on a cloud doesn’t really sound like something I could do for more than five minutes. Whatever we do imagine it to be, I know it will fall far short of reality. “…eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him”^-2
      My belief is that we are all made by God, with a potential and beauty that only God knows. We will finally be free of the effects of sin, either through a Purgatory required, or a life of suffering willingly endured, out of a love for Christ. When we attain that potential and beauty envisioned by God, and can feel the love of God pulsing within us and surrounding us then we are in Heaven, we are united with God. In that union with infinite Goodness, there is no time, there is no future, there is only now. The peace of being at one with our Maker will permeate us, and happiness and joy will be ours, forever.    goto next segment

-1 John 11:26
-2 1Cor 2:9

I Live, Now Not I…

Saul, why do you persecute Me?

     St. Paul’s words, “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me…”^-1 seems to be one of the best explanations of what Christianity is all about. Much has been written about the significance of Christianity and the meaning of Christianity. In these eleven words, I believe, St. Paul has succinctly described for us what Christian Living is.

Weddings: Their Joys and Sorrows

His Gentle Love

     Weddings are such special events, and they affect everyone who has the joy of attending. Those who are already married, find themselves thinking back to their own marriage beginnings. They remember their ceremony, their feelings of love and their intentions. The wedding provides for them, a time to remember and renew.

The Nature of Prayer

     Prayer is defined as the lifting up of the mind and heart to God. That is how the Baltimore Catechism describes it.

Trusting Like Children

     I was watching some videos of my grandchildren the other night. I noticed how they live almost totally entrenched in trust. They are so quick to