A Live Dog and a Dead Lion

There are events that our nation celebrates because it has made a positive mark in our country. Thanksgiving, Independence Day, and Martin Luther King's birthday are examples of events and people who have made a mark on our nation that we celebrate.

There are also days of tragedy that have marked our nation. December 7, 1942; April 19, 1993 and September 11, 2001. Today marks the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

Each of our lives has events that have made positive marks that we celebrate and tragic marks that we mourn. Because I am an optimistic person, I think it is better to spend more time celebrating than mourning. A passage in the Bible appears to tell us to do otherwise:

Ecclesiastes 7:1-4
 A good name is better than fine perfume,
    and the day of death better than the day of birth.
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
    than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
    the living should take this to heart.
3 Frustration is better than laughter,
    because a sad face is good for the heart.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
    but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

Before you embrace a life of cynicism, the writer of Ecclesiastes is expressing the meaninglessness of a life lived without God. Without God, there is no hope and that person may become aware that God can fill their emptiness if they go to a funeral instead of a bar.

Today, is a somber day for America, but not hopeless.
Ecclesiastes 9:4 Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

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