People ought to care. Right? Times in my life when I was really not ok, I couldn’t help noticing that most of the people I considered my friends, literally didn’t seem to notice, and even though I was the type to stay in contact, it didn’t seem to faze them that they weren’t hearing from me, hadn’t for months. That’s when I realized that a lot of my so-called friendhips would have ended long ago if not for the effort I put into maintaining ties. It was my nature, so I guess I never even noticed the one-sidedness. Until I couldn’t keep it up. It was a blow to my spirit, realizing that I could simply “disappear” and several people I thought I was close with, didn’t even seem to wonder what was up.

Love grown cold.

Today is the 14th anniversary of the intentional death of Terri Schiavo.

She was a young woman in her early 20’s who suffered a traumatic brain injury under suspicious circumstances while home alone with her husband, who then had her feeding tube removed by the authority of said husband, and was forced to die of starvation, setting him free to be with his girlfriend and enjoy the inheritance of Terri’s million dollar trust. He was supported by the courts, despite the suspicious circumstances and pleas of Terri’s family, and of many other supporters.

Love grown cold.

As a marker of the end of days, the world’s got this one in spades!

It’s becoming codified in everything from the law, to corporate policy, and frighteningly, in the algorythm-driven medical insurance industry. Chilling to think of. Remember the commercial that depicted granny pushed in her wheelchair off a cliff, during the contentious battle to ward off ObamaCare?

Remove God, teach children they evolved from nothing and are just another species of animals, murder babies, murder the elderly and the helpless who can’t contribute to society. Every single day the news carries stories of senseless, utterly unprovoked brutal attacks on people, including elderly and children. More and of the attacks are perpetrated by children!  I can’t understand how people can live and have one iota of peace in this world as it is, without the hope found in Jesus.

There are many caring people still in this world, but those caring folks seldom seem to make their way into the positions of influence and power these days. We live in a Romans 1 world that God has for the most part, given over to depraved minds. It’s a “playing field” on which ruthlessness prevails, and compassion fails.

All the more reason to take comfort in the Biblical admonitions that the “last shall be made first, and first shall be made last”, and that “he who loves his life, shall lose it, but he who hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto eternal life”.

Jesus laid down His glory and became a humble servant. He did not seek His own will but that of the Father. Even in a world that mostly hated Him. It is sometimes so easy to look at the loveless world and people around us and wonder, when caring is so costly, why we should continue to care. When we hurt, when we are weary, but that is why we can’t get our eyes focused on those things. See them, yes, but to dwell on them is crushing.

Look to the example of Jesus. That is what it means to die to the flesh and to take up our cross and follow Him. Where He is taking us is a place where love never grows cold. We will get there some day. No matter what you are facing right now, lift up your eyes for a moment from your immediate circumstances and remember that future is out there ahead. Let it sink into your spirit. Close your eyes and contemplate it, and make up your mind once again, to trust Him through these insane times, and the sometimes seemingly interminable waiting. Deliverence will come. He promised.

I’m looking now across that river where my faith will end in sight. There’s just a few more days to labor then I will take my heavenly flight