Focus on the Dash

Sum­ming it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by fill­ing your minds and med­i­tat­ing on things true, noble, rep­utable, authen­tic, com­pelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beau­ti­ful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into prac­tice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and real­ized. Do that, and God, who makes every­thing work together, will work you into his most excel­lent harmonies.

Phillip­i­ans 4:8–9, The Mes­sage

Today is Easter, the day Chris­tians cel­e­brate the res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus, the Sav­ior. In pul­pits around the world, min­is­ters will declare the “good news” that eter­nal life has been assured for believ­ers, while con­gre­gants sing “Jesus Christ is Born Today” and chant “He is risen! He is risen indeed!”

For fam­i­lies mourn­ing the loss of loved ones, Easter is a day of mixed emo­tions.  Because we are human and innately flawed, the sor­row of loss con­tin­ues unabated while the mes­sage of Easter bol­sters and com­forts us.

Blog­gers stand in sup­port of each other dur­ing adver­sity and this Easter Day is no excep­tion.  In par­tic­u­lar, prayers con­tinue for lit­tle five-month-old Stel­lan who has been bat­tling supraven­tric­u­lar tachy­car­dia (SVT; rapid rhythm of the heart), as well as the fam­ily of Mad­die who died this past week.  And, of course, the world is mourn­ing the tragic mur­der of another inno­cent child, San­dra Cantu, from Tracy, California.

The Inter­net Café Chat prompt: “If you referred to Philip­pi­ans 4:8 as a stan­dard, would there be some­thing or some sit­u­a­tion you would stop doing, or give up completely?”

This is not a day to focus upon giv­ing any­thing up or ceas­ing any par­tic­u­lar activ­ity.  This is a day to cel­e­brate life and all of its com­pli­ca­tions.  This a day to rejoice in the knowl­edge that life con­tin­ues — unend­ing, eter­nal — for those who believe and that means that no mat­ter how Stellan’s earthly med­ical bat­tle con­cludes, the child of strong Chris­t­ian par­ents, he will ulti­mately pre­vail and live for­ever.  Mad­die has, as Rachel noted, become “heaven’s newest angel,” as has San­dra, last seen on a mobile home park sur­veil­lance tape skip­ping hap­pily off to play with neigh­bors.  She is skip­ping down streets paved with gold today, even as her fam­ily is heart­bro­ken and law enforce­ment offi­cers sick­ened by the man­ner in which their inves­ti­ga­tion concluded.

It was Rachel who inspired me. In announc­ing Maddie’s pass­ing, she wrote:

Mad­die lived from Novem­ber 11, 2007 — April 7, 2009 and what that lit­tle girl did in between those dates, the dash, so to speak. Is amaz­ing. She lived fiercely, beau­ti­fully and pas­sion­ately. Honor her by mak­ing the most of your dash, too.

The dash.The dash is what Easter is all about. The dash rep­re­sents life — “the life ever­last­ing,” as we recite in the Apos­tles’ Creed.  The dash is what Jesus claimed for us.

The dash is what we focus on because by liv­ing our lives to the fullest, we glo­rify the sac­ri­fice that makes our very exis­tence “true, noble, rep­utable, authen­tic, com­pelling, gra­cious.”  The dash rep­re­sents what is “beau­ti­ful; not the ugly.”  The dash is what we “praise, not … curse.”

If we put into prac­tice what we have learned from the Divine Cre­ator — what we heard and saw and real­ized — we will focus on praise and thanks­giv­ing for our health and good for­tune, as well as the health and hap­pi­ness of those we love, all the while sup­port­ing, lov­ing, assist­ing, and com­pas­sion­ately car­ing for those who have suf­fered loss and live with uncer­tainty about the out­come of human tri­als.  By focus­ing on our own dash, we honor the dashes of oth­ers and all the liv­ing and lov­ing that the dash rep­re­sents.  We are con­fi­dent in our knowl­edge that the dash is merely an earthy sym­bol. Even though we mark earthly time by sur­round­ing the dash with time mark­ers, because of Easter, there is truly no begin­ning and no end to our lives. The dash rep­re­sents infin­ity because the Divine Cre­ator knew us before we were formed in our mother’s wombs (Jere­miah 1:5) and the promise of Easter morn­ing ensures that life has no end. The Alpha and Omega has guar­an­teed that we will suf­fer grief and loss as we work our way through tran­si­tions, but ulti­mately pre­vail and be reunited with those who have gone before us to the place that has been spe­cially pre­pared for us.

I do not pre­tend to under­stand the depth of grief being felt today by the fam­i­lies of Mad­die or San­dra.  I can only empathize to a cer­tain point with the fear and uncer­tainty Stellan’s fam­ily mem­bers are deal­ing with as his physi­cians mon­i­tor his con­di­tion and, together, they make deci­sions about his care.

But I stand in sol­i­dar­ity with them, deter­mined not to squan­der the gift of life that has been freely given to me. I choose to focus on the dash, par­tic­u­larly on this Easter day when I am reminded that all things work together for the ulti­mate good of those who praise the Divine Cre­ator and so long as I remain faith­ful — even through adver­sity and sad­ness — I will be held in the Divine’s “most excel­lent harmonies.”

When our hearts are win­try, griev­ing or in pain,
Your touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been,
Love is come again like wheat aris­ing green.

“Now the Green Blade Rises” (Text: John M.C. Crum)

Alleluia! Happy Easter!

Tech­no­rati Tags: A South­ern Fairy­tale, Easter, Inter­net Café Chat, Moth­ers With Can­cer, My Charm­ing Kids

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