Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas is a fascinating read. I would highly recommend it. And for today you can get it in the Kindle Form for only 1.99!
James 5:17 Brief thoughts from Sunday School
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently.”
When you think of the characters in scripture, do you have a tendency to put them on a pedestal? Or maybe you use them as an excuse: “I could never be like King David. I’m certainly no prophet. I could never live the spiritual life that Paul led. I could never trust God like Ruth did.”
The key to Elijah’s life was not that he was this super-man prophet. No, it’s that he was a man like us, and he prayed fervently. The same is true of Peter, Paul, Mary (Pun intended), Ruth, David, Abraham, Moses. They had a nature like ours, and they prayed fervently. To the same God that we pray to today. The very same, just as they sat under the very same moon and stars that we sit under today.
Look around at the people you admire in this church. Jane Hudgins comes to my mind–I often think, “Oh, if I ccould just be like her, if I could just learn to trust God and to pray fervently like Jane. But she would be the first to say, that she is simply a person like everyone else, with all their beautiful things and not-so pretty faults. She has a nature like mine, a nature like Elijah’s, and she prays fervently.
Sunday Sundries
Wow. September is here. Labor Day weekend, the beginning of school, my birthday month. Happy Labor Day everyone–if you are employed, take a few minutes to be grateful for your job. I certainly am.
1.I love libraries–small, tiny, large, bookmobiles–I always like to explore new libraries. The library in Kansas City is designed to look like books–real books! on shelves. I particularly love the giant sized “Charlotte’s Web”. You can see pictures of the library HERE.
2. Ok. Yes, I am a Trekkie. Always have been. Particularly for Jean Luc Picard and his crew, but also Spock, Doc, Scotty, etc. Here are some bloopers from Star Trek. Funny.
3.Beautiful and nerdy stained glass art
4. Hysterical: Very funny political tweets posted after the East Coast Earthquake
5. Popppppcoooorrrnnn poppppppinnng iiiinnn sloooooooow Moooootiooooon
A Hard-Fought Day
God is merciful, in that he allows every day to end. And this has been a hard-fought day.
What do I mean by that? There are some weighty, discouraging things that I have had to plow through, run through this week. And the weight and discouragement of those things, add to the pressure I feel building inside of my soul. It’s a strange place to be–while it is quiet and lonely tonight in my house, there is a cacophony of noise in my mind, refusing to allow me to sleep. It’s noise that says I am a failure. Noise that says I am not a good mom. Noise that says my crew and I will never make it up Mount Everest.
And so it’s been a hard fought day to stand fast. To not allow myself to examine this past week with too much introspection. To not put away the very thing that I know is the best weapon against this reigning despair—Scripture and prayer. To stand fast after short nights.
I wonder if Paul experienced such things. I know that he longed for home. But the verse 2 Timothy 4:7 seems to tell me that he fought hard as well: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Whew! Will I look back someday and be able to say that I fought the good fight? And what exactly is the “good fight”, because there is not much in this fight that I find good. Except for the fact that mercifully, I am still standing. I am still pushing forward, I am running-no, sprinting toward the finish line of this race called life.
But here is the key, the goal, the purpose, the call: “I have kept the faith”. Will I, too, be able to say “I have kept the faith?” Because part of the fight–or maybe all of the fight–is for this, to keep the faith. To know that God is real. To believe, confess and serve.
Fighting to keep the faith is hard work. I am not afraid of hard work. But sometimes my weary soul wants to lay down the sword for a bit and rest. I get discouraged. I get frightened, I get overwhelmed. Tonight I am discouraged, I am frightened, I am overwhelmed.
1 Timothy 6:12 goes one step further:
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Take hold, grab onto, cling to the eternal life to which we are called to. Fight the good fight of the faith. Fight the good fight of the faith. Good fight. And then, having done so, take hold with both fists the hope of eternal life to which you–to which I-to which we are called to.