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Funerals are horrible. Weird emotions seem to always happen at these death centers. People I hardly know somehow become etched in my heart in some strange way. I end up laughing, crying, thinking about eternity and the reality that this life is SO trivial! I remember reading the quote from Jim Elliot as a young man, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Exciting, invigorating, life changing to my young ears. But then the inevitable happened-DEATH. Paul is saying just that-that sad, depressing, hopeless feeling is exactly what our inheritance is outside of a man named Jesus. "You were dead in your trespasses and sins-we were by nature objects of wrath." Not real positive stuff unless you're suicidal. The good news? Verse 4- "God was rich in mercy and Great in Love made us alive together with Christ, even when we were dead!" WOW, from death to life, from funerals to the newness of newborn life. That's a big shift!