Mind Over Mud Mantra

I'm not really sure of much right now. Mind warped. Sleep deprived. Punch drunk. Drug to the bottom of the muddy Mississippi and held captive by heavy chains of 

    grief

            and anger

  and confusion

               and doubt

and sorrow

        and insecurity.

Sluggishly dragging my feet through the mud.  It is an Act of Congress to move me from the couch to the car.  Nervously feeling my way through the dark. One tiny, yet almost impossible, step at a time. Just to get to Broome's Grocery for more Keurig cups. Mud up to my knees. Mind over mud is the mantra. 

Just enough light to see directly in front of me. Frightened by the darkness (both literally and metaphorically).  Jumping at any loud or sudden sounds. Foggy brained. My long range planning has radically shifted from calendaring months in advance to what will our next Hours.

     Minutes. 

Seconds look like. 

Since I do not "know" much of anything right now, it is helpful to return to the nooks and crannies of deeply held truth that even the mighty Mississippi cannot erode away...

At the cross, Jesus bore in his body death and ultimately put to “death” death. First Corinthians 15:55 testifies to the power to put to end death: “Oh Death, where is your victory? O, death, where is your sting?” 

Jesus paid it all. Jesus did it all. Jesus is all in all. Death is dead, and so is Zed. "Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead." 

God's salvation has come; and yet, it is still coming through humanity's life long sanctification journey.

      There's still more work for me to do while I still have the breath of life in my lungs. Even if that work is just how to wade out of the deep waters onto the dry, more stable earthen clay and muster up the strength to vacuum out my car. Put the dishes in the dishwasher. Tie a bow in Breleigh's lovely locks.  

God's kingdom has also come; yet, perplexedly, we, like the early church, still anxiously anticipate the coming of the Kingdom—the return of the King. 

      With loud groans and breathy pants all of creation cries out in a heavy, hopeful anticipation for all bonds to break. For freedom to ring. For a new heaven and earth to burst forth. I am not alone in my waiting. I am not alone in the tomb.

God calls each of us to continue to bear Christ's light until “thy kingdom of grace come(s) quickly and swallow(s) up all the kingdoms of the earth.” (Wesley). 
     Right now a child is being raped. Another starved to death. Yet another caught in the cross fires of rival gangs. How much longer till the great suffering ends?  Do you not know if it is to end we have to do the work of ending it...Rise up, Church!

In Christ's resurrection, we are all ultimately freed from the binding power of sin that leads to death, and are ushered into the kingdom, the family, of God. This final salvific reality will not be fully realized until we are “away from the body” and “home in the Lord.” 
 Mom is away from the body. Mom is at home in the Lord. Mom finished her race. Mom is safe. Mom is free. Mom is home.