No Need to Withdraw from Battle

Here's another great quote from AJ Gossip:

"There is no need, says Christ, to withdraw out of the battle. For in the very thick and heart and press of it, with life flinging against you all it can, troubled, tried, tempted, you can have peace in your soul and valour in your spirit, and if you know Me, and have seen the God of whom I tell, and live in sight of Him, these things are certain to be yours. And indeed, bold though it be, is not Christ's attitude toward life the only reasonable one?"

Thoughts on Pain and Suffering

I'm still going through it. Those are my thoughts!

Here are some deeper thoughts from Don Simpson.

"Pain has an uncanny way of telling us who we are, of holding up a mirror to show us our deepest fears, our doubts, our failures of will - even our atheism. But it also shows us our courage, love, endurance, and trust in God."

You Call THIS Adventure?

The past 5 1/2 months of my life could be looked at in many ways. But, to call it ADVENTURE? That sounds crazy!

However, as God often does, He spoke to me through two completely different sources within 24 hours to change my perspective. First, from my recent literary hero, AJ Gossip, I read his sermon entitled, "The Romance of Religion." He tells of how the world calls us to live like a "lumpish and bucolic creature in some sleepy hollow where nothing ever happens, and the people seem half dead, torpid as flies in winter, and one just exists." If you could tear out a page of this person's journal, it would include getting up, eating breakfast, passing time at work, and getting home to eat and watch TV and go to bed.

That's not the life I'm called to! Even when half the time I've been in bed and felt as bad as a frog caught in the blazing sun. As I have struggled through one day after another, I've not just been pottering about with aimless nothings. I've been wrestling with spiritual powers. We're not called to an empty life on earth, but to an active role in the unseen world.

In my study on the life of John today I read, "We trade in the pitifully small and potentially disastrous for the wildest ride mortal creatures can even know." (Beth Moore)

AJ Gossip puts it this way: "I have been racing desperately for the prize of my own soul, and I have won, though I am left breathless and tired and panting hard. I have been in the ring, fighting my lower nature. And once or twice it got me down, and mauled me badly; but I, too, have been battering it black and blue, and have scored heavily against it. Mine has been an exciting day."

I so far have walked a block and a half (the furthest in weeks!) this morning and had my prayer time and time in God's Word. It's been an exciting day already, and as I eat breakfast, share thoughts with Woody, sing a hymn with him, and go lie down to rest, I now know that today will be another exciting day.

Stand Staring Dumb

"It is those who have made some progress in the art of living life and in knowledge of God who stand staring dumb with wonder at the splendour of Christ. It is indeed an ill sign that we can take Him so lightly, you and I." AJ Gossip

Though I simply don't feel well today... weak, in pain, and just not WELL, I trust I don't have the ILL sign of taking Him lightly today.

I'm not taking Him lightly.

Clinging,

Su

Shackleton and Susan

I definitely don't fit into the same category as Shackleton, but today I was reminded of his group's slow, struggle, trying to cross Antarctica, "chilled to the very soul, with heads bowed low against the icy blizzards, with weak and stumbling feet, and half dead with fatigue." - A.J. Gossip

Though they never reached their goal, I loved being reminded of how the group said "Some One else was there more than they could see." As I continue to take one step forward, and two back or vice versa right now, I know that I, too, have "Some ONE else there more than I can see." Thank God for that!!

Eeyore and Me

When I was a small girl (and even not so small), I was very fond of a stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh. We were pretty inseparable. I even carried Pooh over my shoulder everywhere I went at Trout Lake Camp in northern Minnesota for a couple of summer camps.

Pooh is just impossible not to love.

On the other hand, Eeyore is a tough one to love. He is always in a bad mood. His favorite expression is "Oh, bother!"

Recently, I was given a stuffed Eeyore, and the two of us have become inseparable. Perhaps I have reverted to my childhood. Perhaps I have begun to identify with poor Eeyore more. There's a great story about him in The World of Pooh which reflects my recent muddled thinking and my confusing answers to the question, "How are you?"

"The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about. So when Winnie-the-Pooh came stumping along, Eeyore was very glad to be able to stop thinking for a little, in order to say, "How do you do" in a gloomy manner to him.

"And how are you? said Winnie-the-Pooh.

Eeyore shook his head from side to side.

"Not very how," he said. "I don't seem to have felt at all how for a long time."

Well, neither have I, Susan, felt very "how for a long time," but at least I've got a good friend to stick by my side.

I have to share with you a generous paraphrase of the Bible that I received this week while I was in the midst of "enema struggles."

Psalm 110:1 “The doctor said to my doctor, sit right there on the pot until I make your enemas your footstool.”

Sorry, no deeper thoughts than that today. I'm in need of another nap. "Oh, bother!"

A Message for Gray Days

One can't much complain of gray days in Costa Rica. Today could be called one, but the brilliant green surrounding me everywhere makes up for the minimal gray sky.

Yet, days can be gray. My days are not brilliant. But, I refuse to have them be gray.

For one, I've napped half the day. How much do you envy me THAT?!?

For another, I got to attend (albeit 10 minutes) the farewell for dear Tico friends leaving to join a team in Venezuela involved in training, investing in, and raising up youth leaders in that country. I have especially enjoyed a precious friendship with Adriana, so saying farewell to her was not easy, yet at the same time a joy.

Another bright spot are moments alone with my Lord. I cannot boast of praying a lot. Who can?

Here's something I read today:

The men who have most fully illustrated Christ in their character, and have most powerfully affected the world for him, have been men who spent so much time with God as to make it a notable feature of their lives. Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the morning to God. Mr. Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer. He began at four in the morning. Of him, one who knew him well wrote: "He thought prayer to be more his business than anything else, and I have seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of face next to shining."

Luther said, "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer."

Some sleepless nights I get close to two hours of prayer, but it's pretty "dozey prayer!"

Today I was reading another AJ Gossip sermon entitled, "A Message for Gray Days." My motto adopted from the reading:

May I infect those around me with an unconcerned and quiet faith, a faith that never dreams of doubting Him!

Glorify Him with me today if you are having a "Gray Day!"