A conversation with a friend got this little fiery rant going…..

Please Don’t …

….Presume to know how I feel because you don’t.  We all experience grief and sorrow differently – and my experience is not yours.

Please Don’t….

….tell me he is a better place. A better place is still by my side. Period.

Please Don’t…

…tell me God needed another angel. NO. S/HE. DOES. NOT. Gabriel and Michael and the cherubim and seraphim are doing just fine with the staff and work load that they have.  They do not need any more help.                                                                     

Please Don’t…

… refer to our deceased loved ones as lost.  They are not lost.  I know exactly where he is – on the mantle over the fireplace – and in my heart.  We might be lost – and often are - but they are not.

Please Don’t…

…tell me God called him home. We have a God that values life  (or at least so I believe), values  relationship, values the joy and love we share with and in each other. Home and heaven is right here, on this earth, not some golden city in the sky.

Please Don’t…

…tell me God needed him.  God needed him to do the work he was called to do here – not there, wherever there is.  What can he do ‘there’ that will benefit those still ‘here’ in any way? Beats me.

Please Don’t…

…tell me his work was finished – it’s all part of God’s plan.  I’m not buying it.  We live in a sinful and broken world.  Illness and dis-ease, war and turmoil permeate our world. There is discord everywhere. Shit happens.  And a death too soon, a life taken … why? I don’t know.    

However…………Please Do…

…Share stories about him, with me and with others who knew him and even those who did not.  Those stories will keep him alive – and as long as there are memories, he lives on still…

Please Do…

…was he kind to you? Then pay it forward and be kind to someone in need of kindness – or just because.  Did he help you with a problem or dilemma? Pay it forward and do the same for someone else. Did he encourage you in some way? Then pay it forward and do the same for someone who could use it – and who among us doesn’t need it now and then? Did he laugh with you? Even when you didn’t want to? Pay it forward…

Please Do…

….Grieve in your own way.  You who are his friends (and family, too) are feeling his absence as well., albeit differently than I am.

Please Do…

…remember that I do not believe we have a God that arbitrarily yanks people of their lives just because God can.   I do not believe in a God that is a puppet master, pulling our strings just because.  Dictators do that – not a God who is loving and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.…

…Please Do…

…Just be my friend, be you. Hold me in prayer because I can’t.

Please…………….