Getting Back to it All

We arrived home from Southeast Texas on Friday, April 3rd. Mary died on Saturday morning April 4th. After unpacking and re-packing we were off again to Texas on Sunday. We returned home on Tuesday. I am truly uncertain about where the time went between then (Tuesday) and now (Sunday). Nonetheless, it is necessary to get back to the land of the living. I must begin with what I know. I know that my last "theme" week was "W". Therefore this is need be "V" week. I know that today was Easter Day, the day we as Christians celebrate Jesus' victory over death, hell, and the grave, as he rose from the dead. That victory is passed on to us. However victory is not this week's theme. Valor seems so appropriate to me. So, I have deemed this as Valor week. Valor is "courage in the face of extreme danger". Jesus was a man of valor. Gideon was addressed by a heavenly being as "a might man of valor", at which point he looked behind himself to see who was being addressed. Gideon basically said, 'Who me?"
Perhaps we fail to see ourselves as people of valor. I thought about it a lot. We are people of valor. My friend and sister-in-law Mary was a person of valor. Though her life was marked by many tragedies, she came back each time to fight for what she loved, she continued to have the courage to face life even when things looked bleak. Like the punching clowns that we knocked over as children, she would pop back up. She was vivacious. I was more than taken aback this time when she just couldn't get back up. I know that through Jesus she has victory and is enjoying that victory in His presence.
Of late, I have been venturesome (willing to take risks or unusual courses). (I find it odd that there is such and old word for "thinking outside the box")To take unusual courses is venturesome, and it takes valor. Living life to its fullest takes valor. We never know if or when we will suffer a tragedy or loss of great proportion. We never know if this is the day we smell our last flower on earth of hug a loved one for the last time. We don't have a guarantee that if we try to befriend another, that they will respond in kind. Rejection is devastating and extremely dangerous to our psyche. Really, living each day takes great valor. This week, I shall attempt to really live life with great gusto and be a person of valor. To be vivacious, victorious, and a vanguard will take valor of vast proportions. So vamoose toward valor.