Daily Lesson for September 14, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 29 verses 24 through 28:

Job again took up his discourse and said: 
²⁴ ‘If I have made gold my trust,
   or called fine gold my confidence; 
²⁵ if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,
   or because my hand had acquired much; 
²⁶ if I have looked at the sun^* when it shone,
   or the moon moving in splendour, 
²⁷ and my heart has been secretly enticed,
   and my mouth has kissed my hand; 
²⁸ this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,
   for I should have been false to God above. 

Just before he died my friend and spiritual guide Ted talked about how death is a great stripping away of all things earthly. He said death frees us of the illusions of all securities, save God. In death nothing can save us save God — not money, not looks, not brains, not medics, not even our own morality. As Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return.” It is a stripping and a re-entering into the womb. For just as in the mystery of our birth, the mystery we enter into at death strips us of all independence, tethering us to one single lifeline yet again — the umbilical cord we call faith. 

Those who like Ted are ready to enter once again in the mystery of this womb, are persons who have been practicing this stripping away for sometime. In life, they have already learned to die, and in death, they have already learned to live. Death and resurrection are already within them.  They die; yet they are alive.

Below I will share a video of a conversation I had with Ted just a month before he died. I’ve shared it before, but recognize there are new readers who haven’t seen it. 

Ted is dying here; yet I don’t know that I’ve ever seen someone so alive. He is alive, even though dying; and his stripping away in death a putting on of eternal life. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg0S9mlE7c8