Big thanks to Stephan Pastis and Pearls Before Swine for today's lesson:
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Truth is...All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 [NLT])
You know how sometimes you read something or run across a video at just the right time?
That happened to me this morning when I read the following in James Watkins' updated version of Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ.
It is good for us that we sometimes have sorrows and adversities, for they often make us realize we are only strangers and sojourners on this earth and that we can't put our trust in worldly things. It is good that we sometimes endure opposition and are judged unfairly. When we experience this trouble, it is for our good. For these things help us to be humble and shield us from conceit. For when people speak evil against us falsely and give us no credit for good, then we seek more earnestly the approval of God.
So, we need to rest wholly upon God, rather than needing to seek comfort from the hands of people. When people who fear God are afflicted, tried, or oppressed with evil thoughts, they realize how much they need him, since without him they can do no good thing. Then those with heavy hearts groan and cry out from the troubled heart. There are even times when God's children grow weary of life and desire to depart and be with Christ. All this teaches them that on earth there is no perfect security or fullness of peace.
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Truth is...The more I entrust my sense of well-being and happiness to what happens to me or what people say about me or do to me, the more miserable I will be. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart..."
I was embarking on a short-term mission trip to do some work at a children's home in Central Mexico. Itinerary: flying from Minneapolis/Saint Paul to Dallas to San Luis Potosi.
Speeding down the runway of MSP, it seemed like we were having trouble reaching escape velocity. We were bumping around the cabin, the plane was rattling and shaking, and I couldn't help but imagine hearing Fred Flintstone yelling "Pedal faster, Barney!"
And then, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye you might say, the wheels left the tarmac and all was smooth and quiet as the plane entered its natural habitat of the air.
Right then and there, I wondered, "Is that how it's going to be when you come back, Jesus? Will all the turmoil and trouble of this life-as-we-know-it just . . . just be done as we enter into the realm of existence we were created for?"
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Truth is...He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. (Revelation 21:4 NLT)
A Psalm of Dewey
When everything seemed to be imploding
Yahweh makes all things good!
And if I keep saying it
I may start to feel it
Yahweh makes all things good!
And if I keep saying it
I may start to see it
I am surrounded by naysayers
Monday morning quarterbacks
who don't even wait for Monday
And the worst thing is that they're probably right
I have been conciliatory
when I should have been challenging
Timid
when I should have been bold
And yet
I have been vocal
when I should have been silent
Reacting
when I should have been listening
You have been gracious to me in the past, Lord Yahweh
There have been times when I saw no way for good to rise from the ashes that covered me
and you were faithfully working all things together
for the good
Do it again, Father God!
Make it so!
Cause all your people to rise in awe and wonder
at how you bring beauty from ashes
Hope from despair
Life from death
Take my tears and cleanse me
Cleanse me and the naysayers
Cleanse me and the ill-timed quarterbacks
Yahweh makes all things good!
And if I keep saying it
I may start to feel it
Yahweh makes all things good!
And if I keep saying it
I may start to see it
I'm finding it too easy to tell myself things are too hard,
When facing the end that it's too late to even make a start.
But if we take impossible to mean that we don't have a chance,
We have lost sight of how unlikely it was we would get this far.
The way the single fish outwits the shark by sticking with its school.
The way the crescent moon outspins its dark to once again be full.
Even winter, given long enough, begins to lose its cool.
That which was once exceptional now barely registers at all.
To think the earth exists at this specific distance from the sun
Down to the angle of the axis on which everything is spun
The fact that trees happen to breathe that which we need inside our lungs
It would all seem impossible if it had not already been done
We are impossible to everyone who's ever come before
And everyone who's yet to come will push impossible some more
Just as, indeed, the do's we did outdo the don'ts we didn't.
So everything's impossible until it isn't.
The thought of rivers changing course before somebody gave a dam,
Or that the tide might turn from shore before a line's drawn in the sand.
We cannot know how far our actions go, the impact they might have.
Sometimes, the only thing that we can do is to do what we can.
And I am tired of that doom and gloom and self-fulfilling prophecy.
I am trying to find room to bloom and self-fulfill the opposite
When it's an act of revolution to try to stay remotely positive
There's nothing wishy-washy about opting to be optimists
Whether a brighter future's possible we may not truly know
But the first step toward that future is imagining it so
So as, indeed, the do's we did outdo the don'ts we didn't.
So it remains impossible until it isn't.
And when it's over, and we're no more than old bones within the ground.
Still the soil knows to sow its seed from what is broken down,
What is lost, is always lost, until the moment it is found.
And these things only ever go one way, unless we turn them round.
We are so constantly surrounded that it's easy to forget.
This world was built upon impossible. That has not stopped us yet.
So yes, indeed, the do's we did outdo the don'ts we didn't.
It only stays impossible until it isn't.
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Truth is...Every once in a while, I come across something that just needs to be shared with as wide an audience as possible. So pass this along, won't you?
I read somewhere that...
Charlie Chaplin once stepped onto a stage, told a simple joke, and had the audience roaring with laughter.
He paused, then told the same joke again. This time, only a few chuckles.
He tried a third time. Silence. No one laughed.
Then, with a gentle smile, he said something more profound than any punchline:
“If you can’t laugh at the same joke over and over, why keep crying over the same pain?”
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Truth is...I don't know if this story is true, but the lesson it teaches sure is. I also read "somewhere" (2 Corinthians 5:17) that if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
With thanks to the David Attenborough Fans Facebook page for the inspiration
Consider the swift.
I'm not talking about people who can run quickly. I'm referring to the bird.
The swift is a superb flyer; sleeping, eating, bathing, and even mating on the wing. They are the fastest birds in level flight, with an impressive top speed of 69mph. Late April to mid-August, they live in the UK, but spend their winters in Africa, migrating 3,400 miles twice a year.
If you ever see a swift lying on the ground, wings spread as if ready to fly...don’t be anxious. It isn't necessarily injured or dying.
It’s a creature of the sky that has accidentally found itself in a place where it’s challenging for it to take off on its own.
Its short legs and long, slender wings make it extremely hard to lift off from a flat surface.
All it needs is for you to gently lift it; just a little, in an open palm...
And it will fly...on its own.
Sometimes, people are like that.
We aren't deathly ill or fatally depressed. We don't need anyone to "fix" us. We just need someone to express some faith in our abilities. We just need someone’s hand to lift us up to where we can get our bearings.
A quiet “I’m here” to encourage us for a moment — until we feel the wind beneath our wings again.
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Truth is...This is just one more reason I'm happy to hear Jesus say, "I am with you always."
