The basis of life is tragic.  Here the Messiah has come and rather than letting Jesus shepherd them, the Jews would not hear the message.  When Jesus goes to raise Lazarus from the dead, Mary and Martha fail to recognize Jesus as the resurrection and the life and Jesus cries and it makes me cry too, every time I see or hear of someone facing death without Christ in their life.  Life has its moments of happiness: from romance to the arts to nature to birth, life can be good.  Yet for all of that, people are born with the stain of original sin.  People are born with a nature prone to anger, self will, lust, mental illness.  People are born into troubled families where alcohol, drugs, and physical abuse abound and even if we are fortunate enough to be born relatively healthy and to good parents, we all die.  So unless we hear the message of salvation and receive the Lord into our heart, no matter who we are or where we came from, we do not escape the final judgment.  So it makes me sad when one can go to church all their life and not be born again.  It makes me sad  when the pursuit of wealth supersedes the pursuit of charity and people are led astray by the deceitfulness of riches.  It makes me cry.

            To face sickness and death without Christ is to face eternal darkness.  Don't be deceived.  The most important experience in life is to experience God, is to experience the remission of sin and to receive Jesus into the heart.  This life is short and perilous, fraught with all sorts  trials and none of us can escape the final curtain call, but if Jesus is in your life, when you close your eyes for the last time, you will open them in the presence of God and not in darkness.  That is the good news of salvation.  It is eternal life with God and not eternal death and darkness.  If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.  Ask Jesus into your life and begin a spiritual journey which ends in God's kingdom where peace and love are permanent and everlasting.  Receive Christ today.  Tomorrow may be too late.