Best part of me

I want the best part of me not only to exist but also to live. However, most times I am taken back by the egregious sights witnessed daily, be it, senseless murders, brutal assaults, streets filled with drug abusers, volatile young people appearing to have no care in the world, leaders abusing both power and position or pockets of homeless persons around every corner.  

Time and again, my family tells me that I wear my heart on my sleeve, often allowing the sights to penetrate my soul to a point of sorrow.  Admittedly, I am beyond crushed when I see these sights.  Equally, I am hurt when others are hurting.  I used to think this was bad so I tried being less sensitive, tried closing my eyes, tried not to feel so deeply; but that simply is not my genetic or spiritual make-up.  I don't have to carry the burdens of the world but me being able to feel allows me to extend compassion, encouragement, wisdom, love and support.  The best part of me is that I love in an uninhibited manner - I am living out the word and I am all right with that!

I thought about all this and tried to understand it. I saw that God controls good people and wise people and what they do, but no one knows if they will experience love or hate.  Good and bad people end up the same - those who are right and those who are wrong, those who are good and those who are evil, those who are clean and those who are unclean, those who sacrifice and those who do not. The same things happen to a good person as happen to a sinner, to a person who makes promises to God and to one who does not.

This is something wrong that happens here on earth: What happens to one happens to all. So people's minds are full of evil and foolish thoughts while they live.  After that, they join the dead. But anyone still alive has hope; even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

The living know they will die, but the dead know nothing.  Dead people have no more reward, and people forget them.  After people are dead, they can no longer love or hate or envy.  They will never again share in what happens here on earth.

So go eat your food and enjoy it; drink your wine and be happy, because that is what God wants you to do.  Put on nice clothes and make yourself look good.  Enjoy life with the wife you love.  Enjoy all the useless days of this useless life God has given you here on earth, because it is all you have.  So enjoy the work you do here on earth.

Whatever work you do, do your best, because you are going to the grave, where there is no working, no planning, no knowledge, and no wisdom.
~ Ecclesiastes 9:1-10

We know that we live in him and he lives in us because he has given us his spirit
~ John 4:13 GWT

In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind
~ Job 12:10

So be very careful how you live.  Do not live like those who are not wise, but live wisely
~ Ephesians 5:15

For if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord
~ Romans 14:8 NIV

PRAYER:

Lord thank you for a new day full of endless mercies. Thank you for the lessons you continue to teach me each day. Thank you Lord for allowing my spiritual eyes to open. Thank you for your compassion that I may extend the same to my brothers and sisters here on earth. Thank you for loving me. Now God, help me to embrace each moment in this life. Grant me peace, joy and continued faith despite what my physical eyes perceive. Thank you Father for the beauty and gift of a life. In Christ name, Amen