Lasting Relationship?

Just happened to have a chat about music with a friend who has a fancy for old Tamil movie songs. We had a great discussion about the styles, content, genres, values conveyed and a whole lot of comparison of today's music with that of yesterday's. In the process of the conversation we stumbled upon a famous Tamil song that talks about human relationships and the lines are as follows:


"Veedu varai uravu
Veedhi varai manaivi
Kaadu varai pillai
Kadaisi varai yaaro?"

The song talks about death and the transience of human relationships. The meaning of the above lines are as follows:

When a man dies....
"Veedu varai uravu = The relatives mourn his death only as long as they are in his house 
Veedhi varai manaivi = The wife follows the corpse till the street corner (in Tamil culture women do not go to the grave yard)
Kaadu varai pillai = The son comes till the grave yard (to perform the last rites)
Kadaisi varai yaaro?" = But who will remain till the end?

Even though I have heard these lines many times, it struck a new chord today. Today I was able to see the song in a different light altogether - I was drawn to thinking in terms of eternity. It talks about the reality of death with no inkling of what lies ahead and about how fleeting life is. It also makes us ponder  about the longevity of all relationships we have. Finally the song ends with a question that portrays hopelessness.

In response to this question in this song, I was reminded of the parting words of Jesus to his disciples. He said, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

Oh what a hope!!! His presence is always with his children, to comfort, guide, help and deliver. His eternal presence with us enables us to face life boldly. It helps us to stand up to any challenge. The Psalmist David stood before the giant and was not shaken by the appearance or the taunting of his adversary. He knew His God and he was able to say in Ps 16:8 - "I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken." In Joshua 1:5 God says, " I will never leave you, nor forsake you." His love is a lasting and enduring love which remains true always!! In Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness."

What a hope to be the child of the living God who rose again from the dead. Death was conquered in sweet victory and that is the reason Jesus' words are so life-giving. Death is such an inescapable part of our life, yet for a child of God, death is the threshold of a life of lasting love, union with God, an endless hope and not a hopeless end as the song says. There is no fear and hopelessness in death for a Christian. That is what makes Christ so special to me.

As I close I am also reminded of the song by PETRA which is called "Grave Robber" which talks about life beyond the grave! 

Life in the Valley

Life is a mix of ups and downs. The landscape will be boring if it were plain all over. That is why God created both the mountains and the deep valleys. Similarly there are high points as well as low points in our life which makes life interesting. Life needs to have a good mix of these contrasts to make the picture of life come alive. I was just thinking of this one year that went by which was a kind of a valley experience for me, ofcourse there were a few mountain top experiences as well that God did give me.

The year began with a sad note of my cousin JP meeting with an accident on the 3rd of January 2012. The next one month was spent in hoping and praying he would recover. He did show progress and regained consciuosness until Feb 7th when his systems began to fail and he went to be with the Lord leaving behind his dear wife Zennet & 2 children Kemuel & Kezia. We could not question God on his decision to take him away. This was followed by the death of Danny my good friend and Anne a dear niece and there was no way we could answer the questions. Only eternity will reveal the answers to these baffling questions of Life and Death.

All through the year one thing I never failed to do was applying for jobs online and otherwise. In most of the cases the answer was predictable. I did go for a few interviews, yet nothing came out positively. These were days I had become familiar with the word "No". Though not so verbally spoken out, this is what they tried to say in every mail notification telling me I haven't been selected for the job I had applied for at that point of time. These were also times when people known for gossip faithfully slandered me to aggravate an already wounded spirit. There were moments spent sitting in the Al Majaz corniche in the early mornings committing all of these to the hands of God and asking God for the right door to open for me. There were also moments where I felt my faith was hitting the rocks. Sometimes these dissappointments made me succumb to my human frailties that were questioning "Where is God?". But with every dissappointment came a quiet assurance which said that the best was yet to come.

The months of February & March saw me going through an unexplainable pain in my ankles. These were days when I was forced to be in bed with my feet elevated and I was unable to walk. These were testing times where I thought the lights were going out on me. But by the end of March I was able to stand to my feet again with my strength regained. I was tested in many ways but I understood that it was a process the Lord was taking me through in order to refine me, break me and remould me so that I can begin to look at things with a new perspective.

I was coming out of these losses when I saw a ray of hope coming in the form of being shortlisted for a position with the same organisation I had worked for 18 years. I was reminded of how I spent my entire youth for this organisation sacrificing precious family time and my physical strength travelling for days on end. There were times I could not be with family and friends on important occassions because I was travelling. There were times when my wife would cry on the other end of the phone and I was stranded somewhere faraway. I did hope that somewhere someone will consider all these years of pain and pick me up for the new job in a new country. Like a shot from the blue comes an email which said it was the end of the road for the process and no reason was given. I was devastated as I was building my dreams and counting on this organization for which I had spent the best years of my life. I didn't want to discount foulplay in the high places. I just asked the Lord to bless them that made it impossible for me.

But God was good as he had other plans which were far better and incomparable (Jer 29:11). The Lord saw it fit to open a door for me for a new job after 15 months. With no man as help, it was the Lord who made a way for me to join a medical university a month ago. It is great to be part of this growing institution and it feels good to be learning new things from the medical field as well as exploring a whole new world of possibilities. Along with this came my driving license after 3 failed attempts which was another triumph. All glory be to God!!!

Altogether, this entire experience was very humbling and an experience of drawing near to God. It made me restart life with a new vision and a new focus. My best moments were spent in "aloneness" with God and His word. God became central to me and His word started to engage with me each day. I began to look inside of me in the light of all that the Lord was speaking to me in order for me to mend my ways and get my spiritual life completely overhauled.

Now I look back and all I can say is...

"Bless the Lord Oh my soul, and all that is within me bless His Holy name,
Bless the Lord Oh my soul, forget not all His benefits."

God bless you!!

Life - So Fleeting And Yet So Eternal!

I've lost three people who were very close to me since the beginning of this year and what pains me even more is the fact that all three have died young. It was in the month of February that the Lord took away my cousin in a tragic road accident. He was the only son besides two daughters for my uncle and aunt. He left behind his wife and two small children. In the month of March it was my good friend Danny who died while on tour in Indonesia. He is survived by his wife and only daughter. And now, I just received yet another heart breaking news of the demise of a very dear niece who struggled with a rare stem cell disorder for the last 7 years.

I wonder why a person should die so young when she has a whole life ahead of her. I wonder what the purpose of letting someone live all these lovely days in the first place was?...only to be deleted from the rolls of life all of a sudden? Why should the parents of these young ones go through these moments of heartache after having had great dreams for their children?

The only thing I can say at this moment is that our life is not in our hands. We are here today and gone tomorrow. There is no guarantee of staying alive even when all things are going well. This life is so temporal. Nothing that we hold on to is permanent. Our life belongs to the One who gave it to us and only He is constant.

I'm now reflecting as to what my life is all about. What am I doing here on earth? Why was I born? Why have I survived so long? Will it all be over when I breathe last? Is there something beyond the here and now? If there was nothing beyond this life, then the whole point of living is meaningless.

How fleeting is this life and what do we really live for? The Psalmist David says, "Life is but a hand breadth". But yet there is a thread of hope that is woven throughout the Bible that when we come to terms with this very Source of life and place our life in His hands He promises eternal life - life beyond the here and now. This gives us the hope that we will meet them again in eternity.

This is the hope I would like to leave for the bereaved families of my dear ones who have moved on to the world beyond. Dear JP, Danny and Ann girl - you will always be missed :(