C. S. Lewis wardrobe housed at The Wade Center of Wheaton College
A Wardrobe in Disguise
“It won’t be long now,” you said with a smile your emotions under control. And I marveled at your calm. But when you got that call that said all had been done (and all was not enough), didn’t it take a while for your ready smile to find your face again?
You are never quite ready for the end to come, are you? Even when you’ve had wind of the end for a while.
When you finally face that familiar face inside that greedy box, your resignation to what you thought you were prepared for quickly bolts out the door, leaving you alone with the lonely truth that life will never, ever, really be the same.
But as Paul Harvey was wont to say… “And now for the rest of the story!”
Death’s only glory is that overpriced coffin in which it thinks it’s sealed our fate (and that of those we loved). But Death forgets its box is but a wardrobe. through which the Risen Lion leads us (and all those with faith) into the Land of Narnia where Death (even if it could be remembered) would only be a bad dream.
Long live, Aslan! Deep be Your peace!
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the author invites us to enter the land of Narnia through an old-fashioned bedroom wardrobe. That standing wooden box is the means by a new world is experienced. Have you ever thought of a casket as a wardrobe? For the Christian, a simple pine box is a time-capsule to eternal life. If you have never read this classic story by C. S. Lewis, why not commit to reading it this year?
The above post is an excerpt from When God Speaks by Greg Asimakoupoulos. It was written for a friend whose father died after an extended illness.
The Winner of Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards has a title worth pondering
Everything, everywhere, all at once is crashing in on me. My world is spinning out of control. I’ve lost my grasp. I’ve lost my confidence. Hope is slipping away.
To quote the psalmist (just like Jesus did), “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
In this chaotic universe, cursed by sin and broken by self-destructive choices, everything, everywhere, all at once derails my dreams, drains my energy and robs me of my faith.
Still I will cling to You. I will cast myself upon You. With what little faith I have left I will leap into arms I cannot see but trust are there.
Lord, You are my everything. You are everywhere all at once. There is nowhere where You are not. You are ever-present. You are all-knowing. Nothing escapes Your watchful eye. You are all-powerful. Nothing is too hard for You.
Because you are my everything, everywhere all at once, you know what I need. You know what I lack. You know what I long for.
Carry me, Father in Your everlasting arms. Hold me close to Your beating heart that I might hear the pulsating reminder of Your never-ending love.
Pastor Jack Hayford died on January 8, 2023 at the age of eighty-eight
Jack Hayford was a preacher. Just to hear him speak you’d think you were standing in the presence of a king. And when Jack would lead the hymns he wrote we’d stand with upraised hands and worship Christ the Savior as we’d sing.
Jack Hayford was an author. Truths he’d gleaned within The Book were planted first then watered on each page. Jack helped us see our kinship as the family of God regardless of our gender or our age.
Jack Hayford was the leader of the Foursquare Church at-large. To the church of Aimee Semple he brought cred. Jack helped show that Pentecostals weren’t just feelings focused folk. He was thoughtful in the things he wrote and read.
And Jack Hayford gave us Majesty. I love that worship song. In his lyrics he sees Christ upon the throne. As His subjects we give honor as we pay Him homage due for the glories of His grace He has made known.
My Rhymes and Reasons 