Perplexed, but not in despair...
Time and again God brings me to the place where I throw up my hands and say, "It's impossible."
I will not do do it; I cannot do it.
God whispers in my ear the words I know by heart, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."
With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
I picture Jesus saying this with an enormous smile on his face as he breaks through all our human despair, and hands us hope--"a hope that does not disappoint us."
So many nights I have slept with my Bible under my pillow, clinging onto it as if it is my only hope--Oh wait, it is.
Chesterton's words pound repeatedly in my head, "In what does your only hope lie?" In a man I never saw.
Only I tend to forget this so frequently. I "lift my soul to another" no matter how many times I say that I won't.
And then God brings me to this place where he rips the ground out from under my feet, and strips the blinders from my eyes.
Paul writes,
"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us." 2 Corinthians 1: 8-11
I read those words, and I know why God brings me here...so that I will know this, and fix my hope on Him.
I love being happy...which seems diametrically opposed to this world sometimes. How can I be happy here? I wonder...when even the people I love the most, and respect the most are imperfect, flawed, sinful...and their sin hurts me. Sometimes I feel like the only way to be happy is to be ignorant. I'd rather not go there and see poverty; I'd rather not listen to your personal struggles and have my image of you destroyed; I'd rather not read the Gospel and hear the high standard to which we are called; I'd rather not read another book have three hundred more pages of information that I am responsible for...
But this is not the way to happiness. Happiness involves seeing more, not less...It involves seeing more than just this world, more than just the way things are now, more than just the half-way developed people that surround us.
"Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary struggles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18
Love is not blind. It sees more, not less.
I wondered as I prepared to go to Watts if I would still think the world a beautiful and happy place after seeing life there. I do. I believe that Christ brings enough hope and light to slay all darkness and despair. I believe there is no earthly situation that we can look at and not face with hope. I cling to this as my ideals cave in around me...things are not beautiful on their own, but everything is beautiful in the light by which we see.
"We have this treasure in jars of clay that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us."
We serve the God who raises the dead, oh let me never forget.
I will not do do it; I cannot do it.
God whispers in my ear the words I know by heart, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."
With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
I picture Jesus saying this with an enormous smile on his face as he breaks through all our human despair, and hands us hope--"a hope that does not disappoint us."
So many nights I have slept with my Bible under my pillow, clinging onto it as if it is my only hope--Oh wait, it is.
Chesterton's words pound repeatedly in my head, "In what does your only hope lie?" In a man I never saw.
Only I tend to forget this so frequently. I "lift my soul to another" no matter how many times I say that I won't.
And then God brings me to this place where he rips the ground out from under my feet, and strips the blinders from my eyes.
Paul writes,
"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us." 2 Corinthians 1: 8-11
I read those words, and I know why God brings me here...so that I will know this, and fix my hope on Him.
I love being happy...which seems diametrically opposed to this world sometimes. How can I be happy here? I wonder...when even the people I love the most, and respect the most are imperfect, flawed, sinful...and their sin hurts me. Sometimes I feel like the only way to be happy is to be ignorant. I'd rather not go there and see poverty; I'd rather not listen to your personal struggles and have my image of you destroyed; I'd rather not read the Gospel and hear the high standard to which we are called; I'd rather not read another book have three hundred more pages of information that I am responsible for...
But this is not the way to happiness. Happiness involves seeing more, not less...It involves seeing more than just this world, more than just the way things are now, more than just the half-way developed people that surround us.
"Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary struggles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18
Love is not blind. It sees more, not less.
I wondered as I prepared to go to Watts if I would still think the world a beautiful and happy place after seeing life there. I do. I believe that Christ brings enough hope and light to slay all darkness and despair. I believe there is no earthly situation that we can look at and not face with hope. I cling to this as my ideals cave in around me...things are not beautiful on their own, but everything is beautiful in the light by which we see.
"We have this treasure in jars of clay that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us."
We serve the God who raises the dead, oh let me never forget.