Well I am recovering from a period of sadness (the worst of it the last 5 days). My recovery started with a statement of Martin Luther Kings... "In the end when all is said and done may it be said of my life that I tried to love somebody" (paraphrased).

Well I am over 40

and I know what it means for my grandmother's body to be reduced to ashes; while she gave in the last minutes of her life a witness of heaven to come.

And I know what it means to commit the body of a friend's brother to the ground and his soul to God after dieing from a policeman's bullet.

The soul continues, but not here and this is the rub for all of us.

We can live to love or to consume and the book of Ecclessiates reveals the emptyness of consumption for it's own sake.

I know the direction of real joy walks a humble path. Mother Teresa domonstrated this by her life to an extreme; -- how to have nothing and love everyone.

Hebrew 11 reminds us what life for those who would live by faith can look like... unique to every context and historical circumstance.

I want to add to MLK's words that I want it to be said of me that, "I had faith in God and and that I tried to love somebody". I can do this with or without any fame.

(see II Peter 1:3-11, and Galations 5:6b)