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Never Let Them Go To Waste


 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.(I Corinthians 11:1) 

            In 1995, my mother purchased Bibles for each of her children and grandchildren, and wrote a note to them expressing her hope that each would use theirs. I don't recall whether she actually talked about trying to teach us how to die well,  but it's my hope that I might somehow follow her example in that regard. I would like to be half what I remember her being, knowing that at least some of those memories have grown in my memory.
        I read yesterday about a woman who was horribly injured when someone threw something off an overpass. She forgave him and told him she hoped that he would use what had happened to become a better man. A short time later in the book, the author made a comment about using our pain well.
            I've heard it said that politicians never let a good crisis go to waste. They use them to enhance their own power and prestige. Then there are people like Mom and this woman, who use their pain and their death as a gift, as an example that can help someone else. So often, we experience pain with a sense of injustice, and think of life as our possess, and death its thief. What if we adopted the policy of the politicians, to never let pain or death go to waste, but to strive to benefit others through them. Isn't that following Christ's example?
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Bastille Day (French Revolution)

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