A Conclusion That Makes No Sense

The grass withers, the flower fades . . . 

 - From Isaiah 40

The famous passage from Isaiah, that is prominent in the John the Baptist narrative (it has the epic "A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,'") offers much hope. Jerusalem has suffered greatly. It has been judged harshly, and paid an extreme penalty. It says in one spot, that Jerusalem has paid two times the value of its sin.

The entire passage says that all will be made well. God's people will be restored to their position of favor. Good times will return.

But in the midst of all of this positive thinking, comes a curious reminder that we are finite, dust, and severely limited.

The grass withers, and the flower fades. And we are no different.

How is this supposed to make me feel better?

It's all about being realistic. The truth will set you free. When you're being completely honest, you can begin to do good things for yourself and your future. Jerusalem should now understand this - - - "You are dust. Are you ready to do it my way?"

Consider the tragedy of teen suicide. I have personally known kids that took their own lives. Kids I taught, spoke to, laughed with.

I reflected on the horror of teen suicide, with a woman who has teen aged daughters. I mentioned that the talk is always only about mental illness. But what about other factors? Is there anything in the home environment that contributes to the sense of desperation? Do we focus on mental health because that is something that can be "treated," without requiring much change on the part of others?

We probably won't know, because you're not allowed to talk about that. You might hurt the feelings of someone.

But the fact is, we have these terrors, because society is sick. It's a throw-away world where you can jettison anything that does not please you. You are supposed to take care of yourself first. Don't serve others. Don't put up with others. Don't care for them. "Be yourself."

What if "being myself" equates to sadness for someone else?

But we're not allowed to go there. Society is not ready to handle such talk. And society cannot handle the reality that "the grass withers, the flower fades."

But once you understand that, you can begin to put life into the proper focus. You can realize that, since life is short, and since we do have such little control over our lives, we can go ahead and serve others. We can go ahead and deny ourselves, and therefore make it into God's Kingdom . . . eternally . . . where "being yourself" is actually quite easily done.

And the simple truth is, that the Real You actually is someone that is not here long and is actually quite helpless.

Shouldn't this re-direct us back to God? Isn't it the real easy way out, then, to put others first and try to make their paths lighter?

So, once again, the path to Eternity and Happiness ends up being the exact opposite of what you would think.