Last summer, I was very troubled.  One night, I decided to walk ‘in the garden’ with God.  I talked like I was walking with a friend.  As hot dry night air tickled the pine trees, I complained,  I worried out loud, and I even said thanks a few times.  It felt good.  After my walk was over, I felt better.  I felt better about everything.  I gave it away to God.  I let go.  My problems had been officially transferred and I felt peace knowing that I didn’t have to handle them anymore.  I wonder if once we stop walking in the garden with God, we lose our connection with him.

Genesis 3:8

⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Life has a dulling effect on me.  As I get older there is nothing like a good nap.  I think I might need to remember to take care of my soul upkeep first.  There will be time to sleep later.  God want to hang out with us.  God wants the chat time.  In the garden, we should be talking.

Matthew 26:36-41

³⁶ Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴⁰ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

So, are there problems in your life?  Are you hurt or angry?  How many people have you complained to?  Did you know God gets jealous.  He may want you to involve him in your troubles.  Walk with him and tell him what is bugging you.  You don’t need a bedside, a full church, or a candle.  Just go for a walk, God is waiting for you in the garden.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert

As my pen drools blue nonsense upon a dry white page or my fingers claw at keys, I have attempted to describe what is beyond life.  They say, write what you know.  Upon this fascinating topic, the numerical value of my knowledge is zero.  I have never died, I don’t have relics from eternity, and I have never been visited by a ghost.

Perhaps during REM sleep when the right brain rules and logic is reduced to a darkened mist, we as humans can dip our toe in the waters of eternity.  I would like a list of those who made it to heaven, and those who ended up in hell.  I wonder if I would be surprised?  I wonder what they would say if I could talk to them for five minutes.

A few of my favorite mentions of the realm of the dead from the bible are;

Luke 16:30-31

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

1 Samuel 28 (Calling Samuel from the dead…) 

Exodus 19:21-22 MSG

^21-22 God said to Moses, “Go down. Warn the people not to break through the barricades to get a look at God lest many of them die. And the priests also, warn them to prepare themselves for the holy meeting, lest God break out against them.”

The logistics of the transfer from life to death is kind of a dead topic.  My conclusion suggests that is that it is indescribable with my limited pallet of five senses.  It would be like a rock trying to explain breathing, or a fish trying to teach someone to walk.

I lost my mom in 2008.  My wife and I lost 3 kids that we never got a change to meet.  I dream about them.   I want to believe that they visit me, and are not just a piece of my mind trying to heal emotionally.  Sometimes we talk, sometimes they are just in the room watching.  I feel like they are there.

As I near my 40’s I am starting to realize that the places of the dead, and the location of souls is something that I don’t need to focus on.  I am part of the land of the living, and I need to focus on that.   I may just read about Moses and the Prophets in 2017.  Perhaps my relationships  with the living can avoid deaths grasp.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:15 NIV)

For me, it is a humbling thought to think that someone else often decides my fate. In interviews, I try to answer questions, sell the best version of myself, and make a good impression.  However, the ultimate decision of my fate, is in the hands of someone, other than me.  A marriage proposal is a question, and the fate of that decision is not mine.  When I drive on the road,  I watch the gray path twist, bend, rise and fall.  The scars made of tar, white and yellow lines hold perhaps rules, perhaps suggestions.  A flowered memorial is shackled by weeds  and blows in the wind.  It would seem fate took a life. Mind mind considers the blank stage of the road. Have all drivers had a good nights sleep?  Are they sober?  Is there vehicle properly serviced?  When the play starts will fate turn its hungry eye upon me.  Will my existence be reduced to a tilted white cross?  Fate has written the scripts.  Other people are in action, and deliver the lines. I am at their mercy.

I like what I am seeing in the book of Matthew.   I think I may get to write the format of my level of forgiveness.  I have control! I imagine a finger gilded holding a pen made of lightning.  Glowing letters spill onto a leathery page.  The book is held aloft by a pedestal made of clouds.  The script will be my ally or my enemy.

Wrong, evil, sin, whatever word one chooses, is often an destructive act committed against someone else. If I steal, someone loses money or possession.  If I lie, someone is mislead, or fooled.  If I kill, someone loses their life.  I become the fate that acts upon them.  That is a mighty decision.  I am striving to be other people minded.  In all things if I decide in favor of others and act in their best interests I think the world will get better.  I don’t have any control about how I am treated, but I do love the notion that I have complete control of how I act toward others.

The thread of eternal life is gently woven by the fabric of forgiveness.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert

Last year I bought a PS4.  I have played 2 games on it since.  My kids watch movies and play Star Wars Battlefront on it.   It makes sense.  I am a dad.  I have sacrificed my life for my family.  I take care of five people (myself, my wife and our three kids).  Well, eight, if you count our dog Charlie and our two cats Tom, and Precious.  I enjoy the responsibility.  I never knew it would teach me ‘servant-hood’.

To be a good dad.  I have to support my kids every day.  With emotion, with time, with love, with resources.  I have said to them, “God has blessed daddy with a great career, and you don’t worry about the money, we will just have to buy a new one.”  I can’t recall what got broke but we replaced it.  I am not talking about ponies and yachts,  just dishes, glasses, clothes.  Stuff that kids worry that will make a parent mad if they break it. My kids worry about money, divorce, school, and social difficulties.  My job is to talk to them, and show them, that they don’t have to worry about those things.  I am glad that I am blessed with the gift of gab, because my daughters need perpetual communication with me.  I have enlisted their help with my difficulties that I face.  I tell them sorry and explain through what went wrong, and why things are wrong.  With their mistakes and my own. I hope that will pay off in the future.

God doesn’t come down and talk to me in a fireball, or a en-flamed shrubbery, although that would be cool.  I would probably ask for super powers, like flying or invisibility.  But, God does teach me about full on sacrifice and ‘servant-hood’.  Perhaps my attempt to do this whole dad thing right, will spare me from seeing fire of any kind.

 

Copyright © 2016 Zachary W Gilbert

In 2004 I became responsible to a fragile creature.  In my mind I saw its fur  flowing like swirling clouds.  Eyes black and steady, an innocent gaze.  Full of life and wonder.  Since God himself g…

Source: The Fragile Creature I Care For