Post Thirty-one: Take Heart

Screw Your Courage to the Sticking Place

awe.

Thank you for joining me as I explore the redeeming work of Christ in my life this month. It is an on-going journey, a never ending challenge. I can think of no better way to end than to encourage you, readers. I pray that you too would press on, keep searching for glimpses of His face, and may you find it everywhere.

Post Thirty: Live.

growth

Ephesians 4:1b

Therefore I urge you who have been chosen by God to live up to the life to which God called you.

Post Twenty-nine: My Answer

reverence

A C. S. Lewis quote often comes to mind in these soul-searching moments. It is from my favorite of his works, Till We Have Faces:

I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?

Post Twenty-Eight: Not Alone

porches

Post Twenty-Seven: Joy

first blush

the very place our fear lies is the very place Jesus will redeem us with joy.

Post Twenty-Six: Full Attention

light

Our nothing, for His everything. 

What am I willing to surrender?

Post Twenty-Five: A Remnant of Grace

rust

a quarter lays dirty, on the floor at my feet. dust, germs, and filth clumped around this quarter of a dollar. I remember: a time I wold have already snatched up -- even were it only a penny. But now, I wear a $50.00 shirt and do not think twice of picking up a quarter.

nearly.

instead, I remember and I think my God for sustaining, providing and blessing me.

"It is the nature of grace to fill the quiet, empty place"

God's grace fills all.

Post Twenty-four: Ugliness

Le laid peut être beau.

Post Twenty-three: Beauty

perspective

A quest for eternity is surely, also, a quest for true beauty. Thomas Aquinas said, "Beauty is that which being seen, pleases." What are the beautiful things that I do not recognize because I cannot see? Where are the pleasures my distraction blocks from me? What are you trying to show me, Lord? 

Open my eyes that I may see.

Post Twenty-Two: Eternity

fading

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Viceverses by Switchfoot

To listen to the full song, which I highly recommend, click here.

Post Twenty-one: the Impostor

hope II

In Life's Extras, whilst standing in a hurricanesque storm on a mountain-top, Archibald Rutledge saw a single shining star through the clouds. It was as if it whispered to him.

This storm is an impostor. It is momentary. The sky is here, and the stars; all shall be well.

Post Twenty: Hope

hope

behind the clouds, light never stops shining

Post Nineteen: We have to Trust

My used-to-be-boyfriend/now-husband knows I love books. Often, to cheer or surprise me, he will take me to a bookstore or library unannounced. On one such occasion, a few years back we were in a used book store when I found a treasure: a small, well-loved Archibald Rutledge book. As the poet laureate of South Carolina for many years, you can imagine he has a way with words. I am always struck by the beautifully simple way he will state the most complex idea. In this book, he explains his thoughts on why God created a beautiful world. If you ever find his books anywhere, buy them! It will be well worth it for your soul.*

a candle's touch

Over the last few weeks, the question keeps arising: how do I have strength to hope? Never mind ME, how do people who live in far greater despair than I find the strength, the will, the belief to hope? To what do we cling when we question everything, including ourselves? To whom do I turn when life crumbles?

If we are to hold anything – and in times of sorrow we must have something to which we can cling- it must be to the unseen. For the strength that is permanent, we have to lean on visions; for immortal hope, we have to trust, not the things that we perceive but those invisible things that our spirits affirm.

– Archibald Rutledge Life’s Extras

*I cannot resist the temptation to note: When I checked out with this book, the lady at the register remarked that she did not think anyone under the age of 40 had ever heard of the man. I was happy to prove her wrong and assure her Ol' Archibald and I were well acquainted. More on him later though.

Post Eighteen: Trust?

creekside

Do I trust Him?

Do I believe in a good God?

Post Seventeen: Lament

hope.

Being rearranged, tried, and prodded at is uncomfortable. It hurts. A LOT sometimes. Trusting the work of the Lord can be so hard. I have always believed that it is wise to question and wrestle through spiritual quandaries. I do not think we must take the work of the Lord blind. He longs for our engagement. 

Ask God. Weep before him. Scream out, if you have to. 

There is great freedom in this.

Ann Voskamp, in her recent book One Thousand Gifts, explains, "Lament is a cry of belief in a good God, a God who has His ear to our hearts, a God who transfigures the ugly into beauty. Complaint is the bitter howl of unbelief in any benevolent God in this moment, a distrust in the love-beat of the Father’s heart."

Post Sixteen: A Quote

growth

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." 

— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Post Fifteen: Trouble

In this world you will have trouble…

not very reassuring, is it?

Post Fourteen: Remember

in any language

Take this with you: No matter what, God doesn’t stop writing His heart, His story, His message to us.

Post Thirteen- the Will of Another

letting go

Post Twelve: A Choice

the way

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. " 

— C.S. Lewis (The Great Divorce)