Conversations with God

My husband and I recently went to see Tuesdays with Morrie as part of our season’s tickets to the local theatre company. It’s the story of Mitch, a young man dealing with the dying of his university professor, a man he neglected to stay in touch with for many years. When he reconnects he visits him every Tuesday, even though he lives in another city.

Morrie gives Mitch advice: “Be compassionate.” “Love each other or die.” “Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.” He then invites Mitch to come to his grave after he is dead: “You’ll come to my grave? To tell me your problems?”

“And you’ll give me answers?” responds Mitch.

“I’ll give you what I can. Don’t I always?”

“It won’t be the same, not being able to hear you talk.”

“Tell you what,” says Morrie. “After I’m dead, you talk. And I’ll listen.”

When I heard these words, I was reminded of Jesus. He also told us to love each other. He also wants us to come to Him to tell Him our problems; He will also listen. But here’s the difference. He does hear us and He does answer, because Jesus, even though He died, rose again and lives to intercede for us.

And it’s all because of a relationship that we develop with Him. Mitch developed a relationship with Morrie, but it effectively ended when Morrie died. Our relationship with Jesus continues because Jesus not only died, but He now lives within us.

We need to continue to develop this relationship on a daily basis. As we grow in our relationship to Jesus we also will be able to hear Him speak to us with increasing clarity.

This issue portrays a number of facets of the Easter story. We are encouraged to practice having time for others and to submit to our Gethsemane experiences as Jesus did. There’s a review of the heavily-publicized movie, The Passion of the Christ, and we conclude on the back page with the good news of the resurrection. May God enrich our hearts as we contemplate the sacrifice of Jesus for us.

Herald policy on letters

It seems time to again remind our readers of the purpose of the Letters to the Editor page. As noted in the disclaimer, “The Letters column is a free forum for discussion, [and] it should be understood that letters represent the position of the letter writer, not necessarily the position of the Herald or the Mennonite Brethren Church.” The editorial policy of the Herald is that Letters allow for free discussion and debate, and that they do not need to necessarily reflect “official” positions. The editors moderate this forum according to our policy guidelines. We want to continue to provide a safe place for members of our constituency to debate issues that are important to them.

Confession of Faith issues

The Board of Faith and Life of our Conference has published pamphlets on a number of articles in our Confession of Faith that need more teaching. One of these topics is the statement on homosexuality. We encourage our readers to go to our MB Conference website for more information on the Mennonite Brethren stance on this topic and others. See MB Faith & Life Pamphlet Series; or write to Kindred Productions, 1310 Taylor Ave., Winnipeg, Man., R3M 3Z6, for this pamphlet or for a copy of our Confession of Faith.