The Stranger in the Lifeboat

(Mitch Albom, 2021)

Witnessing survival can make us believe in our own.

Maybe laughter after someone dies is the way we tell ourselves that they are still alive in some way. Or that we are.

Worry is something you create to fill a void of faith.

All prayers were answered, but sometimes the answer is no.

It takes so much to make you feel big in this world. It only takes an ocean to make you feel tiny.

Why didn’t you talk him out of it?
He decided to do it on his own.

God starts things. Man stops them.

I can only do that when everyone here believes I am who I say I am.

The stories we tell ourselves long enough become our truths.

When someone passes, people always ask, “Why did God take them?” A better question would be “Why did God give them to us?” What did we do to deserve their love, their joy, the sweet moments we shared?

These moments are a gift. But their end is not a punishment.

Beginnings and endings are earthly ideas.

Feeling loss is part of why you are on Earth. Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you. But the human form is not permanent. It was never meant to be. That gift belongs to the soul.

In time, the truth comes out. Grief leads to anger, anger to guilt, guilt to confession.

In believing, I was saved.

Forgive yourself, then use this grace to spread my spirit.

This world can be a trying place. Sometimes you have to shed who you were to live who you are.

In the end, there is the sea, the land, and the news that happens between them. To spread that news, we tell each other stories. Sometimes the stories are about survival. And sometimes those stories, like the presence of the Lord, are hard to believe. Unless believing is what makes them true.