SILENCE

(from the heart of IAPH)

This pic is from Stephon Joines’ "Celebration of Life" in Maryland on Saturday, March 16, 2024.
This is our FAM & Friends from our BUF & NYC connect.
(Center front [w/ black jacket]~ Janeen Joines, wife)

POSTING for Sunday, March 31st - Saturday, April 13th, 2024

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POSTING for Sunday, March 31st - Saturday, April 13th, 2024 〰️

Dear Facebook family, we missed our regular posting cycle for the first time in 15 months. We were with our extended families on both sides, at the intersection of life and death. We struggled with not meeting the deadline, considering the existing reality. February 18th’s post featured LIVING, and March 10th’s featured DYING.

We thought, ok, we’ll make it up the following week to avoid missing the cycle, but we finally heard God’s voice saying, "Let life take its natural course and allow silence to have its effect." Like in all relationships, there are extremes, and Friday is followed by Sunday. This season, which we celebrate as Resurrection, contains the most outstanding significant examples of LIFE, DEATH, and SILENCE.

What is SILENCE to be about? In the case of Christ, He was graciously fulfilling the plan of redemption. If we understand the space in which we live, silence can be a time of recovery, a time of rest, a time to lay it all down, a time when there are no words to be spoken, and silence is truly golden. The truth is that this is a part of the life cycle, so what do we do when everything is silent? Jesus expected the silence and encouraged His believers to trust Him. Out of the silence of the grave came a rebirth; rebirth for every one of us who would believe that His life gave us life and that His death paid the sacrifice.

In closing, let us encourage those whose relationship teemed with life at one time and death has come to it. The silent period can be a preface to a rebirth. Some marriages move through separation, and during that silence, it looks like there will never be any future life. The pause could signal to step back from being in each other’s space in real-time: a built-in time of reflection – deep reflection, a time of grieving, and therefore, the silence ends in a time of renewal. It can be a time to acknowledge the actual value of the relationship and engage the willingness to commit to whatever actions are necessary to resurrect it.

We close by saying that we can go in lots of directions with this post today, but summarize this way: “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, but most of all the wisdom to know the difference" (https://www.sandstonecare.com/blog/serenity-prayer/#:~:text=Reinhold%20Niebuhr%20wrote%20the%20original,%2C%20our%20Lord%2C%20Amen.%E2%80%9D). We cannot stop death; it takes serenity to accept it. We can live to the fullest, being intentionally courageous, and then we can trust God to give us the wisdom to know how to navigate all our lives, including those times of silence. God bless you, and we trust you’ll get some traction from this post, as we don’t believe we’re doing it for ourselves. We believe we’re doing it as a Kingdom privilege. If it’s one person who needs it, you have it. We love you and look forward to you joining the conversation
with your comments for the next 14 days.

That's what friends are for.