A Double Dose

I didn't write a blog entry yesterday.

I wasn't sick, my laptop is working fine, and I haven't been locked out of my house. Really, there's no reason why I couldn't have written an entry yesterday.

But, I did go out of town yesterday afternoon. And I spent the morning getting ready to go and organizing arrangements for my daughter, as this trip had been extremely last-minute. I'd only made the decision to go the day before. So I didn't take the time to write. I was doing other things.

Not a perfect excuse, but an excuse nonetheless.

I definitely have a couple of things to talk about, though, to make up for yesterday and also catch me up with today. So, you're getting a double feature!

First off, I'm grateful for service. I'm happy when I have the opportunity to serve someone and help make their circumstances a little easier.

My best friend's grandmother died this week, and she was having to drive five hours to go to the funeral. Her hubby had work, and dealing with kids on such a long drive is never fun, so she was planning to go alone. Knowing how hard it is to do a long drive on your own, and also knowing that she had hurt her back earlier in the week and might need a break from driving, I told her I was going to go with her.

It wasn't a huge act of service on my part. Really, it was almost like a free vacation. She's my best friend, so it's not like spending the time with her was any kind of strain. But I'm still counting it as an act of service!

I felt really good about doing it. I still do. I'm glad I went. I feel like I got to know her better. And it was fun for me to meet her family, and to learn about her grandmother's life and help celebrate it.

That's one thing I've learned. We're often even more blessed ourselves when we perform acts of service than the people who are receiving it.

On the flip side, in order to go out of town, I had to rely on the service of others to take care of my little girl. I had to have one friend pick her up from school, and another watched her overnight and all day today at her house. Without those amazing women and their selfless service, I couldn't have helped my friend and gone with her. I needed someone to take care of my daughter. And two wonderful ladies stepped up and helped me out, with completely selfless Christlike love.

Service blesses those who give it, and those who receive it. I'm very grateful for the acts of service in my life.

The second thing I want to talk about today is my testimony that there is life after death. I'm grateful to have that knowledge.

At my friend's grandmother's funeral, I found myself thinking quite a bit about mortality and immortality. When someone dies, it's like a literal light goes out of them. Everything that makes them who they are is gone. Our bodies are just a shell, a vehicle for our souls. They're wonderful, and we couldn't do most of the best things in life without our bodies, but when it comes right down to it, they're just flesh and blood.

The thing that makes us alive, that gives us our personalities, and quirks, and talents, and preferences, and everything that defines us, is our soul. And a body without a spirit is merely the barest shadow of who a person is.

I truly don't understand people who don't believe in souls, who think that life is an accident, and that God doesn't exist. None of that makes sense to me. All you have to do is look at a lifeless body, and you know, deep within yourself, that that is not that person. That's not them! It's just a shell! The part that defines them has gone away. And there is far too much to a human being to attribute everything they are to mere chance and brain activity. We are far too complicated for such a simple explanation.

We have souls. We have a divine nature. And when we die, our spirits continue on. The only way that is possible is through a Creator, whose intelligent, purposeful design makes it all work.

I feel blessed to have a personal relationship with that Creator, and to know Him as the Father of my spirit. He created me, as I am, for a reason. He knew me long before I ever came to this earth. He knows and understands me more deeply and personally than I know and understand myself.

It's such a blessing to know what I know! Life continues after death. We will be with the people we love, even after our time on this earth is over. Our relationships, our families, our marriages can continue on forever. What a mind-blowing, paradigm-shifting, life-changing thing to know!

I feel so awful for people who don't understand that; people who think that this brief life is all we get. Death must be agonizingly tragic for them. I can't imagine how horrible it would be to believe that, once my loved one has died, they have ceased to exist in any form. I think the terrible pain of that idea would literally drive me insane. Those funerals must be truly mournful occasions.

But for those of us who know the truth, funerals are a celebration of life! We can rejoice, knowing that our loved one has been freed from the weaknesses and pains of the physical body, and are celebrating with their friends and family who have gone before them! While we are sad to be separated from them, and that pain is hard to bear, it's so much sweeter for those of us with faith. We know that this separation is only for a brief time. We know that we will be with our loved ones again. And when we are, there will be no more goodbyes.

What an amazing thing to know. I'm eternally grateful for that knowledge. It is a truth that has shaped my entire life. It's a part of who I am. Nothing in this life will ever be able to defeat me, because I will have victory over death. And when that time comes, there will be no more sorrow - only joy.

I'm grateful that I went on this trip with my friend. I'm grateful for the time I had with her, and the small amount of service I was able to provide. And I'm forever grateful for my testimony of life after death. I look forward to the day when there will be no more farewells, and I can be with my loved ones forever. :)