Finding Comfort in a Fallen World

Jesus implied in His opening words of the Sermon on the Mount that all of mankind are 'poor in spirit' [Matthew 5.3], but not all admit that poverty. Poor in spirit means that I cannot create or maintain a good relationship with God or my fellow human beings. In light of the reality of our being and admitting to be poor in spirit it is appropriate that we mourn that poverty. Because we have lost our ability to have good relationships we suffer loss.
There is a broad spectrum of loss. I lose my keys almost every week. I lost my best friend 15 years ago. I suffered with allergy related asthma most of 2010. Every area of loss implies some suffering and demands some balance of action and mourning. The more insignificant the loss, the more action is required. The more devastating the loss the more mourning is required.
For the most part action is easy and as a human being, I tend to impose action on devastating losses rather than mourning. I tend use a couple of different actions as alternatives to the slower more painful process of mourning. Actions include mental acts like denial [recall Jack Bauer of the TV series "24" being blown up, cut and bleeding, then asked if he was OK. His constant response was, "I am fine." Everyone knew he was not fine]. Actions include emotional acts like anger. Actions include physical acts like medicating the loss.
Unfortunately, these alternatives for mourning do not work. Appropriate mourning has many counterfeits, but no successful alternatives. When we do choose the difficult task of mourning we grieve the loss, we accept the loss and we, by the grace of God, choose to forgive those who are implicated in causing the loss. I believe that no matter where we are in the process of mourning God will comfort us. That is precisely what Matthew 5.4 claims.
The Good News for those that follow Christ is that all of our losses are temporal. They are limited to this earth. The greater part of our comfort, contentment and joy are part of God's gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Those that, by faith, ask God for forgiveness and accept Jesus as Savior are promised that every tear will be wiped away.
We can find comfort in the present world through appropriate mourning; that is God's promise.

Matthew 8 The Cost of Heaven's Citizenship

In Matthew 8, Jesus has just finished the Sermon on the Mount and continues His ministry by means of healing and responding to people. He first heals a leper based on His 'willingness'. Jesus then is approached by a Roman soldier who asks healing for a servant who is paralyzed. Based on parallel accounts this servant is more like a son to the Centurion soldier. The key teaching in this paragraph concerns the authority of Jesus. The point is that those who recognize the authority of Jesus will have a strong faith in Him.
After more healing, Jesus is approached by two would-be followers. The first offers to follow Jesus wherever He goes. Jesus response is that His followers may have to homeless. Jesus shows that those who are committed to growing as citizens of His kingdom will have to set aside significant earthly comforts. The second would-be follower asks if he can first 'bury his father' and then follow Jesus. Undoubtedly, one of the most difficult things that the followers of Jesus must set aside are family priorities. We still have huge family responsibilities as followers of Jesus, but we also are called upon to establish heavenly priorities in taking care of those family responsibilities. The key phrase that this would-be follower uses is, "Permit me first..." That is one thing that Jesus cannot do for him or for us. Rather, we must follow the example of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and pray, "nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will..."
The final 'setting aside' that the followers of Jesus are asked to do, is to set aside fear. Jesus had informed the disciples that they were going to the other side of the lake. When an incredible storm (called a 'mega' storm in the Greek) threatens the ship and their lives the disciples are greatly afraid. Jesus exhorts them to have more faith, and therefore to not be afraid.
1 John 4.11-18 helps with the idea of us setting aside fear. Loving others is our calling and as we develop that calling it leads to 'perfect love' which 'casts out fear'.
There is nothing easy about following Jesus. Salvation is free, but growth in the Christian life is filled with difficulties and costs. As followers of Jesus we need to be willing to set aside earthly comfort, earthly priorities and earthly fears.

Why I believe in God

Atheism is illogical and impractical. It is self-contradictory because the one who does not believe God exists is effectively claiming to have infinite knowledge that One with infinite knowledge does not exist (Huh?). It is impractical because atheism was tried by numerous tyrants including Hitler and Stalin, and it failed miserably. Hitler, who followed the philosophy of F Nietzsche and gave a copy of Nietzsche's book to his ally Benito Mussolini, made the choice to oppose all religion (yet every major denomination supported him originally) and specifically Christianity. Remember Hitler was merely trying to help evolution along by destroying the weaker races and people. Stalin made Hitler look like a saint by killing at least 50 million people in trying to follow F Nietzsche and K Marx. F Nietzsche wrote that "God is dead, and we killed him." He also understood that with god gone a "superman" or "super race" would be created to fill the void. He predicted that with god dead mankind would see the 20th century as the bloodiest century ever. He was right, in fact, it has been argued that the 20th century was bloodier than the previous 19 centuries put together. Atheism applied is not practical to human civilization. The question that remains is, why in the world do we, as followers of Jesus, make decisions without considering or by effectively denying God. That is, why do I make choices from an atheistic perspective? That is worse than illogical and impractical... it is close to pure stupid. May God be merciful to me a sinner.