Reflections on Resurrection

It is good and proper that we should each wrestle with the meaning of our own lives.  This is not a Christian, Jewish, or Hindu thing... it is fundamental to our human nature.  It is how God made us.
Please listen to the finale of Mahler's  Resurrection symphony... if you don't have time for the all of it, at least catch the last 3 minutes.  If there is a heart in your chest, it will be touched.

"What does the worker gain from his toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end" Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 (NIV)

Mahler, an ethnic Jew like Solomon, also wrestled with the same fundamental question about "what God has done from beginning to end".  The difference is that God blessed him with the genius and creativity to articulate it through music in such a beautiful, dramatic, and compelling way.  This music declares that there must be something more than this fleeting, corporeal existence!  Something that endures!  There must be something in life that has meaning, significance, and weight!

How does this relate to auto restoration?  Last night, on recommendation from my #1 son, I watched "Love the Beast".  I was touched.  Please indulge me in one more video reference.


The original designer makes a car the way it is for a reason... with vision, care, forbearance, and in some cases, with passion.  The car, when new, put "flesh" on that vision, inserted it into our corporate reality.  Over time, the accumulating rust, verdigris, grease and grime, the dents and "pitted chrome" provide evidence of its existence in that reality.  Of its journey.  What is important is not the car's condition, but the memories evoked in the hearts of those who experience it.  Eric Bana's film centers on what appears to be a relationship with an inanimate object... but it is actually much more than that.  It is an icon, a talisman, a reminder of key relationships in his life.  "A campfire to me and my friends"

To my "car culture" generation, the loss of a beloved car is an emotional blow more severe than the lost of a favorite pet.  Through my Uncles, I have been taught that cars should be honored.  They are repositories of memories and emotions that mere photographs and videos can't convey.  I'm now feeling the responsibility associated with restoring my Grandma's car.  This is not a responsibility that I take lightly.  It is somehow profound, a sacred trust.  And it is a part of my own restoration, of reconciling memories and giving weight to my experiences... both good and bad.

Resurrection is about new beginnings.  It's about hope, not just for myself, but for those I care about... both now and in the future.  Being renewed, day by day.  Regardless of my past, I can still be a joy to my Creator.

My hope for this t-bird is not just to give weight to my story, as compelling as it may be.  It is also not just to honor the memory of my Grandma, and the previous owners in my family.  My hope for this car is the future experiences and friendships that form around it, and the future relationships it engenders for myself and my family.

Resurrection is not something to be experienced only after this earthy life is over.  It is something to be experienced now.  God has provided a way to make me right with him... today!  I simply need to seek eternity on a daily basis.

"I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?"  John 11:25-26 (NIV)