Jesus Christ
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Every year, when April 15th—the anniversary of my Dad’s death—comes around, I find myself reaching for something—a memory, a story, a feeling that connects heaven and earth; me and my dad. This year, instead of starting with what I miss, I asked my wife and kids: “If Grandpa John were here today…what would you want…
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Listen closely. What do you hear? A breath.
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I still wasn’t becoming who I wanted to be. Then it dawned on me, you become what you look at. So if I’m only looking at myself, my faults, my failures, my successes, I will just stay myself. I won’t actually grow. So I looked to Jesus and said “do your work.” Seeing my death…
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All of my feelings well up in my soul. All of my thoughts race through my mind. And more than ever in my life, I just want to call my dad.
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Good Friday is the yearly remembrance of Jesus’ Christ’s betrayal, trial, suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial. Christians across all times, cultures, and geographies have communally and reverentially worshiped Jesus as the author of salvation in his sacrificial act. Over the last 100 years, Good Friday has fallen on April 15th only four times. And, this…
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My boys smiled at me as I cried, and then proceeded to spin to the music while screaming at the top of their lungs. And, in that moment I tasted joy; joy unexplainable. A joy so deep and unexpected, it can only be explained as supernatural. I felt the presence of God in that very…
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I remember Christ’s death on Good Friday, celebrate Christ’s resurrection with joy on Easter, then immediately go back to experiencing sorrow and pain by remembering my Father’s death. It is like reaching a beautiful mountain top only to have a storm roll in and quickly rush you off, having you descend in darkness and experience…
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John Francis Elliot, my father, died twenty years ago on this day: Where were you at my soccer games? Where were you at my high school graduation? Where were you when I graduated college with honors? Where were you when I joined my soul with my wife in marriage? Where were you? Where are you…
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I find myself writing on death quite frequently. Every year for the anniversary of my father’s death, I write a theological reflection and meditation on the concept and reality of human death. Death has always had a certain hold on me, and I have always had a certain contemplative fascination with it as both a…
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Today, being the sixteenth anniversary of my father’s death, I reflect and meditate on the truths of God pertaining to death and life. This is my consolation. Reflecting on the nature of God truly is the only consolation I have found in this life, in my sorrow. Asking questions of God, and meditating on how…