EVERSE

REFLECTION 

Lent can sometimes seem like an overbearing season of somber reflection and darkness that is as dreary as the February wind and gloomy skies.  In our times, people like to be happy at any expense and will go to great lengths to hide the pain or suffering that they experience.  Drugs, clothing, cars, houses, just about anything these days is marketed as a product that will make us happy and help us to forget or get rid of the things we don’t want to remember like the broken relationships, suffering, oppression, and evil in the world.  The reality is that without confronting our demons, without facing the darkness in our own lives, it’s impossible to have peace and be happy.  The gloom of Lent (and I don’t think Lent is really gloomy as much as it is reflecting on the reality of our lives) must come before the hope, joy, love and glory of Easter.

  STORY

There once was a young man who had everything he could desire.  His family became lucrative with their business and amassed a large fortune that was at his disposal.  Like many people in his situation life came too easy which carried a deadly price tag; he wasn’t in touch with who he really was and quickly found that any problem he ever encountered could be bought off and gotten rid of with the vast financial resources he inherited. 

Like many social elites this young man easily surrounded himself with a circle of friends who were more friendly with his money than they were with his heart.  They partied most nights away with drugs and sex and became oblivious to reality, that part of life that exists when we’re stripped bare of excesses and are forced to face who we really are.  It’s at this point of self-centered living that the danger of bestruction becomes all too real with the irony that the cushion of comfort acts like a narcotic to blind us to the impending danger around the corner. 

To face the vices of our lives and rip open our hearts and say this is me; all the filth and evil, all the good and peace mixed together, is the only way to face the demon’s of chaos that come unaware to undermine our existence.  But, the wild parties and fake friends told this young man that life would last forever, eternal bliss was his so why bother with the nagging thoughts he had deep in the pit of his heart.  Ignore that numb feeling in your gut and take a hit on the this stuff to fill your veins with what really counts.

In the end you can’t run from your misery and the young man found the bottom of the bottle was death.  But, even here at the end of his rope, with the noose around his neck, there was a light that shone, a presence that called to him from out of the depths of despair and invited the young man to see what was truly real in his world of death and despair.  To change takes more courage than to give in to the voices that seek our death.  But, to change goes against human nature and the young man had to wrestle with himself deep in the heart of his soul to get to what was real, to where there was still love, to find hope because all these things were buried underneath layers of false and inauthentic attempts to hide himself for the sake of a quick fix and mometary happiness.

Once the young man faced who he was while looking at the bottom of that bottle his friends left and his money dried up.  But, that light, that hope, that love, that called to him reached out and forgave him.  There was a new drink in his hand that gave life and this drink never led him to the bottom of a bottle but instead to a love that was never ending.  Life isn’t always filled with everything desired but it becomes filled with peace that is surpassing once we face our demons.