LOVE & PAIN

I loved mistakenly....I didn't know that he'd be one who would abandon someone who couldn't say that they consider all things rubbish compared to knowing You...All I know is that I'm following You as best as I know how...I hope that that's enough for You at least...
I wish he wouldn't leave me, I wish he would stay with me always...but not my will but Yours. And tho sometimes I feel at my end, I remember, that You are my portion in the land of the living.

When my spirit grows faints within me,

it is you who know my way.

Ps142:3

PAIN, DEATH & LIFE

In our distorting fear we are tempted to invoke the power of the resurrection as a short cut to new life. We want our Easter without having to go through Good Friday. We choose to overlook the lesson of Palm Sunday: that when we offer our hosannas to Jesus and proclaim him king before we are prepared to experience the pain of his dying and of our own dying with him, our shouts become hollow...the road goes through Calvary and there is no other. Before his resurrection brings new life to us, before we can tolerate the gifts of his rising, something in us has to die. It may well be something which has been very important to us...When we seek to evade the hurt, we lose the goal (of sharing in Calvary and thus resurrection).

Greame Griffin, 'Faith and Fear'

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Heb 12:11

I will not forget that I am sharing in Your suffering, no matter how meager mine seems to be...and it is a joy to share in the sufferings of Christ, although mine would be more discipline instead of suffering for good?

For he wounds, but he also binds up;

he injures, but his hands also heal.

Job 5:18

SANDCASTLE

My God brought me to the beach and asked me to build a sandcastle. So I began to scoop sand with my little bare hands while He looked on. Little by little, the sandcastle took place, until it became the grandest sancastle I ever built. A little bit shabby, but I loved my sandcastle…so much. The sun started to set, and the tide began to inch its way in. Afraid that I was going to lose my beautiful sandcastle, I scooped more sand to build embankments. But the tide was too strong, and I saw my glorious sandcastle give way segment by segment, until all that was left was a heap of sand where it once stood. I turned to my God and wept. I said to Him, “I can never love another sandcastle as much as I loved this one. The next time we come back to the beach, can You help me build this very same sandcastle and not let the waves eat it?” My God smiled at me and merely said, “I love you.” He took my hand, and reluctantly I left the beach and what was once my beautiful sandcastle by the sea.…

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. Job 1:21

IMPORTANCE

Help me God, to regard and treat everything and everyone as - not any less important than they are, and not any more important than they should be.

GLORIFYING GOD

Is it not alright to choose a path just because you like it to be so (as long as it is not prohibited in the Bible)? Does everything you choose have to directly glorify God? Doesn’t He take pleasure in our happiness? Or are we supposed to just pray “I would like this but Your will be done”, then just sit there and take whatever comes at you to be God’s will? If I lived on that principle I wouldn’t be here in Australia but in UK. Perhaps that was the best? Yes, it probably would have been better if I was in UK and not here.