Sheriff Chaplain Newsletter Message: A Giving Spirit Builds a Life of Love.
Greetings to everyone, this was originally a message prepared for a SCOPE memorial where we celebrated the life and service of Rhonda “Ronnie” Gore. I have prepared it now for all of us to consider how we are spending our DASH.
Many of us have known and even served alongside people who have lived a life of love through a wonderful spirit of giving. Let’s all spend a moment and take a look at the DASH poem.
THE DASH
I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on her tombstone from the beginning… to the end.
He noted that first came the date of her birth and spoke of that date with tears, but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years,
For that dash represents al! The time that she spent alive on earth…and now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own; the cars….the house, .the cash.
What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.
So think about this long and hard… are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left. (You could be at “dash midrange.”)
If we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real, and always try to understand the way other people feel.
And be less quick to anger, and show appreciation more and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect, and more often wear a smile… remembering that this special dash might last a very short while.
So, when your eulogy is being read with your life’s actions to rehash… would you be proud of the things they say about how you spend your dash?
–Author Unknown
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There are a few important highlights to touch on for each of us:
- If we could just slow down enough to consider, what’s true and real, and always try to understand the way other people feel.
My friends, are we able to slow down?
Can we consider what true and real, what matters in our life?
If so, I pray we will have a better understanding of how the people in our life are feeling.
- And be less quick to anger, and show appreciation more, and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.
This point is so powerful for each of us along the journey of life.
How are we all doing at NOT being quick to anger?
When we start to choose this more, we will then be able to show appreciation more.
This creates more opportunities for us to love the people that God has placed into our lives.
- If we treat each other with respect, and more often wear a smile, remembering that this special Dash might last a very short while.
I am choosing, and invite you all to join me, to honor God and everyone He has placed in my life who has shared a giving spirit, by treating others with respect (even if it may not be reciprocated).
And in this very short life on earth, I pray that each of us will choose to try to focus on the good all around us, so that we can more often wear a smile.
So, as I think about the end of this wonderful poem; it does ask if we would be proud of the things people say about how we spent our Dash; my question to us all is this, “is God proud of how we’re spending our dash?”
How did (and how do) those with a spirit of giving spend their dash? I think we can all agree that those who come to our mind in this area have spent it with an ‘other’s centered’ mindset. That spirit of giving is a gift that leads us all into a Life of Love. That is a legacy to be cherished!
How are we spending our dash? Because we are spending it, each and every single day we are spending our dash…until the very last moment on earth.
At the end of my Dash, I hope to hear some powerful words from the Lord Jesus as I transition to the Next Life.
Will you or I hear these words? “Well done good and faithful servant”.
Or sadly would you or I possibly not hear these words?
Let’s take a look at the Scripture selection for this message from John 14:1-7.
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
1. Let not your heart be troubled is how this Scripture starts.
Question for each of us: how is your heart doing right now?
- The antidote to a troubled heart is to trust in God and trust also in Jesus. This changes everything, even our pain and our grief.
2. There are many rooms in the Father’s house; and our loved ones who knew (and know) Christ as their Lord and Savior, all have one of those rooms right now. Hallelujah!
3. God wants us to be with Him in heaven, and I would dare say to all of us, that our loved ones who are their now, all want us to be there with them too.
So, as you spend your Dash (your God given life) serving and caring for others, we still need to know that this is not our final home.
The Next Life, that is where Jesus has gone to prepare an eternal place for every Believer in Him, for all those who have invited Him into their heart and life as their Lord and Savior. We can trust in this truth because God is a Promise Keeper.
We see the words that I mentioned earlier (that I long to hear someday), are found in Matthew 25:21.
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
We can all have this assurance from God, as we see in Romans 10:9-10.
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
This is the hope of heaven, and it is an eternal hope that fills us with a Giving Spirit that builds a Life of Love though us everyday until we take our last breath here on earth and open our eyes in the place that Jesus has prepared for us.
I close today with a Proverb; Proverb 3:5-6.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.
My friends, lets decide now to trust Christ in it all, and know that as we trust and acknowledge Him, God will direct our path, even into the next life. Amen.
Blessings from Above, Chaplain Robert Kinnune