Pastor Mike’s Garage April 1, 2021

*Pastor Mike’s Garage, April 1/21*

As I sit down to write this pastor’s garage my thoughts are around the
funeral we are having here at the church this afternoon. Pastor Dave and
myself spent some time setting up the church this morning, then we sat in
the sanctuary for a bit and just talked about life and prayed. Our thoughts
and comments centred around the brevity of life. The reality is, it matters
not whether you have 5, 50, or a 100 years here on this earth, it passes by
all too quickly. I’ve always found funerals a precious time to remember
those we love and cherish, but also a time for personal reflection and
realignment in my own life. We get so easily distracted and overwhelmed
over things, when put in the perspective of seeing the end of a life, that
are so trivial and meaningless.

This PG is gonna be short and sweet, take some time this day, or weekend to
reach out to someone you haven’t connected with in a long time. Tell
someone you love them. Spend some quality time with family and friends. If
there’s some tension between you and anyone you can think of, do everything
in your power to make it right. Choose to forget about your shortcomings,
choose to forget about the shortcomings of those around you. Go for a walk
in nature and talk to God. Ask for forgiveness, forgive yourself, freely
forgive others. Life’s too short!

I will close with a couple passages from Psalms. Pastor Mike

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger
forever. He does not deal with us according to our iniquities. For as high
as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward
those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He
remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his
children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows
our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like
grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over
it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.”
Psalms 103:8-17a

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s
womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are
your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the
earth. Your eyes say my unformed substance; in your book were written,
every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was
none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the
sum of them!” Psalm 139:13-17