My view this morning from the couch

There is a famous movie called “2 Weddings and a Funeral”, that is not this week. This week in my world is 2 funerals and a wedding. This has got me to thinking a lot about life with it’s stopping and starting or you could call it, entering and exiting, this week is a revolving door of both of these.

You cannot enter into something without leaving something behind. You can’t.

“As important as the act of entering is the act of exiting.” Jonathan Cahn, The Book of Mysteries, Day 59

I think this is it, this is the answer to the question I have been asking for the past year. I have had people come up to me and literally say, “well, I could never do that.” That is what they say about our move here to the property and living in the bush and all that has come along with that.

This same Day 59 goes on to say, “There are many who long for change, for something better, for something new. But few are willing to leave.” This pertains to everyone, in everyway, in all situations. Fear gets in the way, comfort gets in the way, we long for the new and exciting as long as it does not interfere with what we have.

Think about this: You have to leave to get.

You have to leave your mothers comfy womb to enter into life.

A bird, snake even a caterpillar has to work their way out of their shells, and cocoon to launch into their next phase of life.

You leave your home to go to school to get an education.

You leave your school to get a job.

You leave your family home to get married/spouse.

It all starts with leaving, an exit. Gods’ ways are often upside down to our way of thinking. We discussed a couple weeks ago the concept of time. The worlds system goes from day to night but in God’s kingdom, in Jewish culture and in the middle east, time goes from night to day. Sabbath begins sundown on the first day and goes to sundown of the second. Night to day, dark to light.

We find it hard to not think that the exit is the end, it is over, finished, but in reality, an exit is the door to a new beginning. The place where life is getting started.

Abraham, first man of the Israelite nation. What does God tell him to do? “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to a land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 Abraham does not even get to know where this land is, simply the command: “leave, go.”

It seems to be a consistent theme in the Bible. You must be willing to leave, to get the new. I had never thought that the act of “leaving” is as important as the act of entering. It is why we celebrate the leaving of high school with graduation, a wedding is a celebration as we leave our father and mother and begin a new life with our spouse. These are celebrations for exiting as we enter into the new phase.

We had to leave our home in Gr. Prairie to enter into this new season of our life here on the property. It was the act of exiting and the act of entering. You cannot stay where you are and move forward – that is impossible.

Staying where you are is the same as stagnant water – not living. Stagnant or standing water is water that has been sitting for long periods of time. With no movement or aeration, stagnant water becomes a breeding ground for bacteria or fungi. The water becomes unpleasant and foul smelling. The same can be said for our lives, some of us have been sitting still for long periods of time, unmoving, unchanging, without the infusion of movement, we can turn stale, stuck and lifeless.

I always wondered at the disciples willingness to leave, to drop everything and follow Jesus. These fisherman on the sea of galilee left their boats, their nets, their livelihood to follow after Jesus. They left in order to get.

I heard a sermon that explained this. It was not uncommon in Jewish customs for a Rabbi – a teacher – to call young students, men, to come follow them. It was an honor to be called by a Rabbi. When Jesus who is called a teacher or Rabbi in the Bible calls the young men, they see it as an honor to go with the Rabbi. In our custom, we think, ‘Wow, I would never drop everything and do that.’ But in Jewish customs it was done often and was not out of place. They had to exit their old life to enter the new.

Jesus Himself had to exit heaven to enter into our world here on earth below. When His time was complete, Jesus then had to exit earth to enter back into heaven, where He is now.

We leave this life, to enter into the next. You must leave in order to find out what is next.

We have “celebrations of life” for people once they pass, we celebrate them at their exit. For those of us who believe in what Jesus said, death is the door to a new life in heaven.

Death is a great comparable of exiting and living.

Seeds have to “die” before they sprout, grow and become a plant to produce fruit, seeds, life.

We get baptised as a symbol of death and are brought up out of the water in newness of life.

Trees have to die and rot and then they become hosts for new mushrooms and other plant matter to live and thrive on.

Jesus was the ultimate example for us. Jesus died and was placed in a tomb. Tombs are void of hope, they appear to be an abrupt dead end. The death of Jesus Christ is a fact, historians of all kinds agree to this. There has never been a satisfactory explanation on where Jesus’s body went. It disappeared from the tomb. Talk about an exit!

Jesus did not stay dead, it is reported from many different sources that after Jesus was murdered, crucified, He appeared to over 500 people over a period of 40 days. Talk about a celebration for an exit!

Today and yesterday we celebrated the life of 2 loved ones, we grieved along with the family at their loss of a family member, we call it “passing,” it is an exit. They leave this life and they passed or entered into a newness of life in the next. Their exit leaves a void in our lives, a true hole in our world where they touched our hearts and lives but that exit is not forever, we have the hope that we will see them again.

This weekend we will be celebrating a wedding – where the bride and groom will exit the life they are living now and enter into a wonderful adventure together. My youngest son is getting married and the preparations for the exiting are many as we anticipate their new stage of life. It will be a wonderful celebration.

I look differently now at exit’s, leavings, because when you put it into perspective, an exit is not an end, it is simply a new door and there is new adventure waiting on the other side. It may not be comfortable this exit or leaving of something, it may literally push you out of your comfort zone but in light of exit and entering - is that a bad thing? No one wants to become stagnant water.