21 Sep
it’s exhausting excercising faith into things that keep disappointing you even after you say how disappointed you feel. why can’t things just change when you need them to? ugh. the world would be such a better place but there’s obviously too many damn people on earth for that to be accomplished in a lifetime. one at a time..right?
don’t use the intellectual approach to answer unanswerable questions, use the me under God’s thumb question…
I didn’t mean to be trite…feeling life’s burdens and questioning faith issues gives us the opportunity to realize that our life is not OUR life and that we need help to change into something better and bigger.
God allows “struggles” to help us face the absolute need for Him in our lives…(and the struggles are sometimes horrific, due to our, and other human’s, decisions to do their own agenda).
We were created to love and be loved as our ultimate function and our path through Jesus to God is the only way that we can become “satisfied” with ANY answer to ANY question.
Free will allows us to chose God in our time of need, in our most animal and lost feeling moment, or to keep pounding away at the issue in frustration, because we really have no control over our lives anyway…
16 Sep
I have learned lately to pay attention to my inner promptings. Seems they are like wisdom bursting through the pride and selfishness that have defined my life. At my age I am more cautious and attentive. I have found that the tools the world uses to get through life are woefully inadequate. Only the spiritual tools that I develop and exercise are lasting and truthful enough to help me find that “narrow path.”
”Now it could be that I’m just a slow learner, and God is being especially gracious to a man who needs a little extra help. Lord knows, I do.” Says John Eldredge in his book “Waking The Dead.” “If you are not pursuing a dangerous quest with your life, well, then, you don’t need a Guide. If you haven’t found yourself in the midst of a ferocious war, then you won’t need a seasoned Captain. If you’ve settled in your mind to live as though this is a fairly neutral world and you are simply trying to live your life as best you can, then you can probably get by with the Christianity of tips and techniques. I give you a fifty-fifty chance.”
”But if you intend to live in the Story that God is telling, and if you want the life He offers, then you are going to need more than a handful of principles, however noble they may be. There are too many twists and turns in the road ahead, too many ambushes waiting only God knows where, too much at stake.” ”You cannot possibly prepare yourself for every situation. Narrow is the way, said Jesus. How shall we be sure to find it? We need God intimately, and we need him desperately.” “You have made known to me the path of life,” David said in Psalm 16:11 . Yes–that’s it. In all the ins and outs of this thing we call living, there is one narrow path to life and we need help finding it.”
I am constantly enriched by men of God like G.K.Chesterton, Max Lucado, Philip Yancey, John Eldredge, C.S. Lewis, etc. and a host of others. Daily I dive in, with an open softened heart, and soak up the wisdom that God has let flow.
