A HOSPITAL IS A MICROCOSM OF THE WORLD.

WHY? Let me explain

On the surface, a hospital appears to be a great place.The sheets are clean and the staff is friendly. Nurses come and go with warm smiles.Doctors periodically appear wearing nice loafers, a tie, and a kind face. Friends and family visit bringing pretty plants and friendly words.

There is a curiously large number of smiles here. I've walked the halls and been greeted by the smiling Candy Strippers pushing the the coffee cart.The gift shop downstairs is full of magazines with smiling people on the covers.The lady selling them smiled broadly at me when i bought one.The receptionist at the front desk smiles when you pass by.

Along with the smiles and the comfort is the escape hatch.The TV is placed near the ceiling and through it you can climb into the outside world.Just flip the switch and you are riding on the Love Boat or watching the Yankees game.

Smiles,efficiency, distraction. I've seen some resorts that don't offer this kind of treatment. My, you almost forget where you are.

In fact were it not for the undisguised reminders, you would forget.But just when you relax-just when you begin to smile to yourself, just when you giggle at Bill a friend or family member- a siren reminds you.The scream of the patient next door reminds you. Paramedics rushing a stretcher towards the emergency room remind you.

And the reminder is sobering.This is a hospital. The sole function of this building is to bargain with death.The walls can't be white enough nor the staff polite enough to hide the stark reality of the bottom line:

People come here to give all they have to postpone the inevitable. We give it our best shot.We put up the best we have-the best technology,the best minds,the best equipment  and yet at best we walk away with an extension,never a solution. And though we may walk or be wheeled out with smiles and waves of victory, down deep we know it is just a matter of time until the best we have won't be enough and the enemy will conquer.

So a hospital is a paradoxical place.  A place where the reality is hidden, yet can't be hidden because the reality is to real.Our world is identical to a hospital.Have you ever noticed the endless extremes to which a person will go to hide the realities of life?

                                               TO      BE     CONTINUED!!!

                                                    ABSURDITY IN THE FLESH
You mean to tell me that God became a baby...
The one poising the question was puzzled. His thick eyebrows furrowed in doubt and his eyes squinted in caution. Though there were places to seat, he opted not to do so.He preferred to stand safely behind the crowd, unsure, yet intrigued by what he was hearing.
"Yes, that is what I mean to say," the instructor responded."And then, after becoming a baby, he was raised in a blue-collar home?
He never wrote any book or held any office, yet he called himself the son of God"?
"That is right."
"He never traveled outside of his own country, never studied at a university,never lived in a palace, and yet asked to be regarded as the creator of the universe?"
"That's correct."
"And this crucifixion story...he was betrayed by his own people? No followers came to his defense? And then he was executed like a common junkyard thief?"
"And after the killing  he was buried in a borrowed grave?"
"Yes, he had no grave of his own, nor money to purchase one."
  The honesty of the dialogue kept the audience spellbound. I realized I was witnessing one of those rare times when two people were willing to question the holy. Here were two men standing on opposite sides of a deep chasm, one asking the other if the bridge that stretched between them could actually be trusted.
There was a hint of emotion in the student's voice as he carefully worded  the next question.
"And according to what's written, after three days in the grave he was resurrected and made appearances to over 500 people?"
"Yes."
"And all this was to prove that God still loves his people and provides a way for us to return to him?"
"Right."
I knew which question was coming next, everyone in the room knew it. It could have gone without being asked. In my heart of hearts, I was hoping that it wouldn't be asked.
"Doesn't that all sound rather..." He paused a second, searching for the right adjective. " Doesn't that all sound rather absurd?"

                                                      TO BE CONTINUED..............

LIVING WITH PURPOSE "The journey to an unknown destination": E...

LIVING WITH PURPOSE "The journey to an unknown destination":                                                  E...:                                                  EYEWITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY We can live next to something for a lifetime, but unless we ta...

                                                 EYEWITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY
We can live next to something for a lifetime, but unless we take time to focus on it, it doesn't become a part of our life. Unless we somehow have our blindness lifted, our world is like a blind cave.
        Think about it.Just because one has witnessed a thousand rainbows doesn't mean he's seen the grandeur of one. One can live near a garden and fail to focus on the splendor of the flowers. A man can spend a lifetime with a woman and never pause to look into hers soul. And a person can be all that goodness calls him to be and still never see the author of life.
          Being honest or moral or even religious doesn't necessarily mean we will see him. No. We may see what others see in him. Or we may hear what some say he said. But until we see him for ourselves, until our own sight is given, we may think we see him, having in reality seen only a hazy form in gray semidarkness.
         Have you seen him?
         Have you caught a glimpse of his majesty?
 The man.The bronzed Galilean who spoke with such thunderous authority and loved with such childlike humility.
The God. The one who claimed to be older than time and greater than death.
Gone is the pomp of religion; dissipated is the fog of theology. Momentarily lifted is the opaque curtain of controversy and opinion.Erased are our own blinding errors and egotism. And there he stands.
JESUS.
Have you seen him?
Does who first did were never the same.
"My Lord and my God!" cried Thomas.
"I have seen the Lord," exclaimed Mary Magdalene.
"We have seen his glory," declared John.
"were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?" rejoiced the two Emmaus-bound disciples
But Peter said it best."We were eyewitnesses of his majesty." The emperor of Judah. The soaring eagle of eternity. The noble admiral of the kingdom. All the splendor of heaven revealed in a human body. For a period ever so brief, the doors to the throne room were open and God came near.

                                     THE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIANITY
God tapped humanity on its collective shoulder. "pardon me," he said and eternity interrupted time, divinity interrupted carnality, and heaven interrupted the earth in the form of a baby. Christianity was born in one big heavenly interruption.
              Just ask the Bethlehem Shepherds. We know so little about these men. their names? their age ? how many were on duty that night? we don't know. But this much, we can safely assume: They had no expectations of excitement. These are sheep they are watching. These men expected no excitement, nor did they want any. Any excitement was bad excitement- wolves, mountain lions, poachers. Shepherds treasured the predictable. They coveted the calm. Their singular aim was to be able to tell their wives, "nothing happened last night."
                   Just because they wanted a calm night, however, didn't mean they would get it. And forgive the reminder: just because you want a calm life, don't bank on having it. The minute you sink down in the easy chair of life, heaven pushes the remote and changes the channel:

                                     The financial aid office says "no"

                                      The doctor says "pregnant"

                                       The boss says "transfer"

                                        The text grade reads "F"

                                        The auto insurance says "expired"
"I am the one who creates the light and darkness. I am the one who sends good times and bad times.I, the Lord, am the one who does these things." And our typical response is like that of the shepherds. Fear. " Then an angel of the lord stood before them. The glory of the lord was shining upon them and they became very frightened".
                Change always brings fear before it brings faith. We always assume the worst before we look for the best. God interrupts our life with something we have never seen, and rather than praise we panic! We interpret the presence of a problem as the absence of God and scoot!

                              Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing JESUS

                               Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing  more than imitating him who we see.

                                To see his majesty and to imitate him, that is the sum of Christianity.