Life, A Sadder Day

The Easter weekend those of us in the western world, consist of three days. We tend to focus mostly on two of them Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. First of all the term Good Friday is a misnomer, because that fatal Friday was filled with denial, devestation, desertion and death. Resurrection Sunday is a day marked by Sunrise, seeking women, surreal discoveries and a living Savior. Between these two days we wait, we hide in our upper room, behind locked doors and hope beyond all hope for the waiting to be over. We pray that the enemies of our Lord will come for us as they did for him. We live in the desperate,uncertain anticipation of Sunday, but tremble in terror because it is still Silent Saturday, the day when God is still and silent.

It is Saturday, the day of the cave and grave, between death and resurrection, this is sadly the real world where we all currently exist. The day of terrible, dreadful, oppressive and deafing silence. It is a world where evil appears and even views itself victorious, cruelty controls the seats of power in the world of man and terror and torture are triumphant. A dreary, debilitating darkness obscures the Sun and clouds our hearts. The graves are still filled, everywhere we turn sin holds sway and death devours, destroys and devastates God good creation. It is our appointed time upon this spinning orb, when we live out our lives on a dying planet among desperate dying people. Saturday is a day of fear, dread, loneliness, doubt and loss, when we wait in an uncertain anticipation, a faint hope of Sunday. We live out our earthly existence between death and resurrection. We are stuck in muck and mire of the sty that is Saturday but we dream of Sunday for we are a Sunday people.

We wait for the uncertain Sunrise of Sunday in eager anticipation and with bated breath for the chains of death to be broken. We yearn after, long for Sunday's healing anointing. We hope and trust in the seemingly unbelieveable promise of the resurrection's reunion. We tremble in fear behind closed, locked doors because it's Saturday, but when reunited with Jesus, when he stand in our midst, we touch his hands and feet all things are new and we are healed, whole, redeemed, we believe and confess "My Lord, and My God!"

I live in "Sadder Day" but I belong to Sunday....

Bob Phillips

"Shifty" by Chuck Yeager

Subject: "Shifty" By Chuck Yeager Notice at the end how many medals and decorations Shifty was awarded!!!!!!!!!!!! "Shifty" By Chuck Yeager SHIFTY DIED JAN 17, 2011..........rest in peace. "Shifty" By Chuck Yeager Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he d been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made. Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 ... " at which point my heart skipped. At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped. I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland , into Arnhem ." I was standing with a genuine war hero .... and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day. I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said "Yes... And it ' s real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say. I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach. He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this. Shifty died on Jan. l7 after fighting cancer. There was no parade. No big event in Staples Center .. No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage. No weeping fans on television. And that's not right!! Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans. Rest in peace, Shifty. Chuck Yeager, Maj Gen. [ret.]

P.S. I think that it is amazing how the "media" chooses our "heroes" these days... Michael Jackson, Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan & the like that don't deserve one second of air time or our attention!

My Brother-in-law sent me this-thought it was good enough to repost