Look at the first verse of each letter to the Thessalonians. Who were the writers/senders?
“Paul, Silas (Silvanus) and Timothy”
An intriguing anomaly appears in the introduction to Galatians. Additional senders are listed but unnamed (see 1:2). Who are they?
“and all the brothers with me – Paul’s whole entourage”
Think back on a harsh season of your life and record a good memory – perhaps even a funny one – you carried out of it because of the company of others.
“For a moment, I couldn’t think of a harsh season of my life. So I guess that speaks to how well God, family, and friends saw me through my brain tumor surgery and recovery.”
Now look carefully at one Thessalonians 1:3 and document three specific things Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy recalled in the presence of God.
“They recalled the Thessalonians’:
“work produced by faith,
“labor prompted by love
“and endurance inspired by hope.”
Without using anyone’s name, how has loving been difficult in your experience?
“Some people are needy and more high maintenance than others, and loving them regardless can be an exhausting challenge.”
What does Romans 5:5 describe?
“God pouring his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”
We must invite our souls to plunge into his love, like a dolphin romping in the sea.
Glance back at today’s ‘Flash-Forward’ and fill in the blanks: your work of “faith”, labor of “love”, and endurance of “hope”.
Let’s examine a short checklist:
Are you in a season where faith feels like hard work? “No”
Is loving laborious? “No (mostly)”
Is hope circling the drain as you keep longing and waiting? “No”
What is your current, ongoing reminder that life here is temporal?
“Dana‘s career and mom and dad‘s dotage (85 & 88)”
Faith is a game changer. Know that to your bones.
We are not just like everybody else breathing the world’s toxic air. Our flight has been hijacked by hope.
Dearest Rachel – 
It’s interesting that, on the day I’m covering this entry, there’s a sermon series at church on issues one deals with at home; this weekend’s topic is on intentionality, and how we need to number our days and make them count. And here, your last question on today’s study has to do with the reminders you faced at the time that served as a reminder that ‘life here is temporal.’
Of course, I’ve been living that life for the past five and a half years, now. I could tack an extra four on there by osmosis, due to your struggles with your parents (and, for that matter, my dad’s own fight for recovery and survival that he recently surrendered), but I don’t know how personal it was until your passing, and it was brought into stark relief that mortality wasn’t just for the older generation to deal with.
Not that it hadn’t touched us on a more direct and personal level. You literally pointed out how, despite only being five or six years removed from having undergone surgery – and still dealing with the fact that the peripheral vision in your left eye was severely (and permanently) diminished, allowing me to sneak up on you with near-impunity – you had sort of forgotten how close you (we? It hadn’t been me personally, but that day in the hospital, waiting for you to come out of surgery, was something else) came to the end already. For all that I continue to deal with having lost you now, it could have happened a decade beforehand; we were already living on borrowed time.
But then – if you’ll forgive me for going off topic from your study – aren’t we always living on borrowed time? We have what God gives us; it’s not as if we have a right to any moment of it, nor can we expect the next one, or the one after that. It’s just that the constant flow of moments make us think they will go on forever, and we almost never take into account that we’ve no right to expect more than what we have. To be sure, it’s hard to know how to make some of those moments count – especially since most of them fade and disappear so quickly as they pass – but we’re supposed to do right by them as much as possible. Not necessary as much as possible; when your days are packed too tightly, there’s the chance that nothing in them gets the attention it deserves. It may be best to have a schedule that’s full, but with enough gaps in it as to permit one to focus on the things and people that exist within it.
After all – to return to your responses – there are people in our lives that require a little more attention and grace than most. Indeed, there are times when we are those people – those first few months after your departure come to mine for myself – and while I’ve stated before that we’ve no real concept of karma in our faith, we are encouraged to “give, and it will be given unto you” (Luke 6:38); how much more so such we attend to such people when we’ve already been given to?
Although, now that I write these words, I realize how little I’ve given back thus far myself. Oh, I volunteer here and there, but as far as cultivating relationships? Yeah, that’s not really a strong suit for me; I might as well be typing with boxing gloves on, for all that I’m good at being the person for people in need. But I should get it in print, even as I pontificate on what those reading over your shoulder should do, as to how far short of that ideal I fall.
Still, I guess I’m not alone. Even as you denied that loving was laborious, you did add the qualifier “(mostly),” and I can envision some of the names you would mention for whom that would apply (although to the best of my knowledge, I wasn’t one of those people – but then again, would you tell me if I was?) So I’m not the only one having difficulty dealing with people; it’s just much more my nature to have it than it was for you.
But with that being said, I would hope your spirit could nudge me to assist those others who need it. Part of the problem is that I don’t recognize needs when they come up – or in some respects, the fact that we all have a certain need leads me to not even try, as I can’t meet that need for everyone in my orbit, so why bother? Again, I suppose I need to focus on one or two people (Daniel and Logan, perhaps?), and work my way out from there. Maybe I can find Megumi in the process…
Anyway, all that having been said, I should get out there. Today is going to be a busy day (I’ll try and tell you about it later), so if you can keep an eye on me, and wish me well, I’d certainly appreciate it.
Letters to Rachel 