Jim reminded me that God has won. I needed the reminder.
Lying awake between three and five this morning, I was processing the possibilities of making better responses. The chorus of an Ina Ogdon song that we used to sing in Sunday School kept running through my head:
Brighten the corner where you are!
Brighten the corner where you are!
Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar;
Brighten the corner where you are!
Brighten the corner where you are!
Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar;
Brighten the corner where you are!
Notwithstanding that there may be some minor mixing of metaphors, I think I had determined to take the message to heart, or as another little chorus put it:
This little light of mine
I'm gonna let it shine!
This little light of mine
I'm gonna let it shine!
Let it shine,
Let it shine!
I may have slipped up on this, or as a politician might put it, "Mistakes were made."
Sorry about that.
12 comments:
Let troubling things trouble you, I say. Express your trouble from time to time; there's no harm or shame in it. When you do, others can comfort and encourage you. We all need that from time to time.
And then find some place in your world that needs you, and go give of yourself there. It's the best you can do to counteract evil.
How do we see the beauty of the world without experiencing the ugly? There would be no measuring stick then.
It's okay to feel and acknowledge the troubles....it is how you process them and move forward that matters.
I hope today is a better day, my friend. There is still plenty of good in this world.
Jim, you are an encourager. Thanks.
Lin, it is true that we need a yardstick by which to measure. How would we know we prefer sunshine if there were never any clouds?
You are right, too, in that there is much good in the world. I have tried to live by the general rule that people are good, or at least well-intentioned, until they show me otherwise.
I was going to say something along these lines yesterday and then thought "It's not my place..." Jim Grey is a thoughtful man.
Grace, feel free to tell me your thoughts. I trust you. Jim is a thoughtful young man. I enjoy reading his blog.
On cloudy nights, the light of even brightest star is obscured. But when the clouds dissipate, the star is still there. Keep shining!
Vee, of course what you say is true.
Nice to know you are human. We all find ourselves there from time to time. And isn't it amazing how those songs from early SS come back to help us through? Many of them seem more profound to me than the grown-up songs.
Sharkey, yeah, human. With all the foibles, failings, and shortfalls that come with it, it seems. "Permit the little children to come to me," Jesus said. The message is simple enough that a child may understand, and I am grateful for those songs and that training I had as a child.
Humans with all the warts and wobbles that attend.
That verb tense is critical. God HAS won. Done. Completed in the past. Effect continues through the present.
Chuck, interesting that you mention the verb tense. This morning the lady who led the public prayer during worship services said, "Thank you Father, for what you are going to do." I spoke to her in the foyer after and suggested that it is the case that God has done it. She agreed, and said, "In my human way of thinking I don't always look at things in the same way that God does in His great view of all things, past, present, and future."
Post a Comment