But I am poor and sorrowful: let Thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.
The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.
Psalm 69:29-32
I once wrote the words: "Will it take my pain to draw your tears, dear friends? Why do my tears not cause you pain?" and I stand by them to this day. Nothing has changed in the heart of these friends during this past year: and worse yet, no change in my heart. These very words condemn me for being negligent in my love--the mark of Christ.
Without words, what sort of relationship remains? What kind of friends do not talk? Perhaps a perpetual silence (not the occasional pause) is more telling than I think it to be. Yet I would not have these silences changed for my own desires; I cop out and take the low road of saying "Well, that's that: you're not a friend of mine." Beware, reader, of the dangers of taking these easier fixes to problems, which really aren't solutions at all.
O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous:
for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day:
behold,
we are before You in our trespasses:
for we cannot stand before You because of this.
Ezra 9:15
But whoever has this world's good[s], and sees his brother has need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God dwell in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
I John 3:17-18
What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and has not works? can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled;" notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit? Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone. Yes, a man may say, "You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
James 2:14-18
Followers of Christ are warned they won't have life pleasantly. Yet I echo the psalmist:
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
Psalm 16:6
Why? Everything in my life seems to add up to bring me to a destination of despair and depression. Here comes the sun--
Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.
I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good besides You."
...
The LORD is the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You support my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.
I will bless the LORD who has counseled me;
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
I have set the LORD continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Psalm 16:1-2, 5-11
I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the LORD.
Psalm 27:13-14
So I will not "lose heart" from doing good, but I will joy in my labor. Reconciliation makes God happy--therefore, I rejoice in reconciliation.
Furthermore, I will rejoice in my trials for more than the reasons of endurance and the assurance of a stronger, more mature faith that result from endurance. (James 1:2-4) I will rejoice in my trials, because they equip me, making me perfect and complete to minister exactly as God would have me serve, lacking nothing. These struggles produce experience, which equates to a deeper level of empathetic love for people. And so I pray for the testing of my faith, that I would not only grow in my love for God and my neighbor, but also that I would grow in my capacity to love God and my neighbor!
Deliver us! Deliver us! O Yahweh, hear our cries! And gather us beneath Your wings tonight!
I met (and am praying for!) a freshman whose parents are Catholic, but who says he "doesn't believe all of the Catholic doctrines." This is good, for the doctrines he doesn't necessarily agree with are ones like the need for a human priest mediating for our prayers and confessions.
Jesus's ascension entails His 1) right to rule, 2) remaining a man, and 3) return.
Christians are little dynamos. Christians are philosophers who cling to and love Truth/Wisdom, embodied in Christ. Christians are missionaries in a hostile environment. Christians are lambs before the slaughter, whose blood cries out for vengeance. Christians are not meant to live disembodied lives from the Church, called the body of Christ. How long can a finger be wrapped in ice before it cannot be restored to its hand?
O, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.
Let that grace, now like a fetter, bind my wand'ring heart to Thee!
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it: prone to leave the God I love!
Here's my heart, O, take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.
Resolved: to remember all the tragedies of my life as blessings from the hand of God, and to encourage others with my experience.
Resolved: to, in all else, be sympathetic of pains I am not familiar with.
Resolved: to be gracious in my words, treating inferior men as if they are superior men.
Resolved: to not take pride in humility.
Resolved: to not evangelize for any reason besides a duty of love to God and to my neighbor.
Resolved: to collect books in the hardcover, if possible and affordable.
Resolved: to learn how to shave with a safety razor.
Resolved: to not make checklists of superfluous or superficial things until after crystallizing the essentials.
Resolved: to do the laundry more often, so I could donate more of my clothing.
Resolved: to never buy a T-shirt for myself that advertises something contrary to truth.
Resolved: to never fully lock myself alone in a room, ever.
Resolved: to avoid popular movies that feature pornographic scenes.
Resolved: to never sag. Sag =/= swag.
Resolved: to value time over money, and to use that time wisely.
Resolved: to avoid monetary debt.
Resolved: to learn before I teach.
Resolved: to never despair.
No comments:
Post a Comment