You are filled with the Spirit to receive God's love. Being the church reminds us God promises to always be with us - even when we feel we don't deserve His love and forgiveness or aren't up to the work He has set before us. The Spirit keeps breathing into us - reviving us and bringing us back to life because a life - especially one that is unique and unreproducible as yours - should never be wasted.

Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit before they went out to change the world because there is nothing worse than a bunch of people without candles or flashlights running around in the dark - bumping into things, bumping into each other and not getting anywhere. But there is nothing better than a bunch of people with candles or flashlights helping people find their way in the dark. Once the disciples had the Spirit - it was time to push back the darkness.

Back in the old days when you hiked Diamond Head - there were no lights in the tunnel part. One time I forgot my flashlight and had to wait until someone came along so I could follow them. The next time I remembered my light - and it was my turn to lead the way.

Every time Ascension Day rolls around, I hear Jesus say, "you know the way to the place I am going." And I do. I know who Jesus is. I can't fully comprehend what that means - but I know enough to know if I want spend eternity with Jesus - the only way is to follow Him home.

And this gets back to our calling. Rarely can we change all the things we think need to be changed to make us happy - whether we're talking about changes to our body or changes to the world or changes to the people around us. We aren't in charge of everything - and even if we were, we can tell people what to do - but they aren't any better at changing things than we are. As Bob Goff said, "Most people need love and acceptance a lot more than they need advice."

The one thing we can do - the one thing that is within our power - is to learn to accept the people and events and even ourselves when change isn't possible. Change is a process. "How many times do you want me to forgive my brother?" Peter asked Jesus. And Jesus basically responded, "to infinity and beyond." And that goes for us too - "how many times can I be forgiven - especially if I keep doing the same, dumb things?" "To infinity - or at least eternity - and beyond" Jesus replies.

How many times has a new experience led you to new questions? And new questions led you to new answers that challenge how you thought about life. When we were children - if we read and listened to our teachers and ran and played and talked - our minds were constantly stretched so to absorb all the new stuff we were experiencing. Then came the hard part - processing and figuring out what was good and what wasn't - what we needed to remember - and what we could forget.

This is the way of life. If we are to be healthy - we cannot stop learning and growing and experiencing until the day we die. And as followers of Jesus - our faith requires us to add another dimension to sort all this so we can not only apply it to our life - but also so we can we talk to others about Jesus.

Unless we have some context - all those doctrines, fancy words and Greek and Hebrew verbs aren't going to make sense. Sometimes, in fact most of the time, we aren't going to fully understand what God is trying to tell us until the moment comes that translates it for us. It's not about us being smart or holy - it's not even about us wanting to know things. Sometimes you have to be in the moment - whatever moment that is - for God to speak to you and you be able to understand what He's saying. And that moment requires some prep work which is why we worship and study the Bible and pray.

God never wastes anything. All of our stories - adventures - failures - questions - doubts - they all are woven together and used by the Holy Spirit to bring us along in our faith. When I get the chance to talk to people - and hear their story - I can see God at work in each wrong turn and dead end but also the moments where they're flying down the road with the top down and the wind blowing their hair without a care in the world. God is always with us - not just in the dark moments.

If you have ever experienced the loss of someone who was close to you - someone you loved and perhaps even said, "I don't know how I could live without you..." - you know what Mary was feeling.

It's these flashes of honesty that Ezekiel is talking about in our Old Testament Lesson. The Lord asks, "Can these bones live?" Elijah answers, "Oh, Lord God, you know." I love how Elijah turns the question back on God. I would have said, "I have no idea! - but, if these dry bones are my family and friends - the people I don't want to live without" - I would add, "but I hope so!"

St. Paul says, "if we only have hope in Jesus for this life - we are to be pitied more than anyone" - and he's right. If all we're doing is fooling ourselves - pretending there is something after this life - we should not only be pitied, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

Black is a color. White is a color. But light and darkness are completely different. Darkness - especially deep darkness - only hides what is actually there. When the darkness is complete - you discover the table, the chair, the marbles on the floor. They were always there - the darkness didn't make them go away - you just couldn't see them.

You can't see light - but you see what it lights up. I suppose light is visible - but if it doesn't illuminate anything - if there isn't anything to see - light doesn't serve a purpose. If you were out in the deepest part of space - and a beam of light went past - you would only know it because one moment it was pitch black and the next it's wasn't. But what do you need light for if there isn't anything to see?

Would you rather see nothing clearly - or know even though something is there and you can't see it - there is someone who can see it and will keep you safe? This is the question we need to answer.

What Isaiah and Jeremiah want you to know is - the worst thing in your day, your week, your month or even the worst thing in your entire life is not the last thing. Did you get that? Like daughter Zion, we can be tempted to give up - to think we've been forgotten - if we were ever remembered in the first place. Like her, we might even write "it looks like...you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure" in our diary, and then lay down our pen and close the book.

Fortunately our story does not end with our sin or hurts or pains or losses. God will not allow those things to be the final words of our life. Psalm 139 says, "your eyes, O God, saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Some people think that means we have no freedom or choice in our lives - God is pulling the strings and we're just puppets. But if that were true - why would God let us sin in the first place? One of the hallmarks of Lutheran theology is Eternal Foreknowledge. God knows what we are going to say and do - and He lets us choose for or against Him, for or against our world, for our against us - but always places within our grasp everything we need to know He is still here - still loves us - and won't give up on us. Divine love always conquers divine justice because of the cross and empty tomb.