Soaring reconsidered
Isaiah 40:27-31
Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
At that moment in the film I wonder if Frodo would have described himself as soaring…? I doubt it. Battered and bruised, I reckon he’d have been too exhausted to care.
I guess i’ve always thought of soaring as some sort of pain-free escape route from anything and everything nasty that life might throw up… but maybe its not quite like that. Maybe its a little more like the image above, namely Gods promise of salvation and rescue to those who are hurting, who have nothing more to give, who are weary and beat up, who have stumbled and fallen, who lie face down in the dust and are too exhausted to get up.
The truth is, Gods promises hold. Whatever’s going on, God loves and knows. He knows our every weaknesses and need, and provides for us always. In Him we lack nothing.
So could it be that we’re always soaring… regardless of whether or not we’re aware of it? I’m inclined to think we might be.
To Him be the glory.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Back in September I moved flats for the first time in 5 years. The flats a dive but the flatmates are epic. Here’s a photo from my bedroom. South-facing = a lot of sunshine. Winner. John Denver sang, sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. So true.
Proofs in the pudding
A couple of years ago a columnist from the Times wrote a piece called “As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God“.
He writes:
It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
Matthew Parris (December 27, 2008)
I love that. When its the real deal, its unmistakeable.
We are dust
In scripture God consistently blesses us with the reminder of our finite nature . We’re likened to dust, like grass that withers, like flowers of the field that spring up, beautifully, but briefly… and quickly gone and forgotten. Psalm 103:14-16 says:
As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
I love the perspective on offer. We are fragile and our lives are short-lived. It puts us in our place and makes God look rightly massive. Personally, it serves to take the pressure off and reminds me not to take myself too seriously. Being “dust” makes us anything but useless though. Applying a bit of divine creativity God formed Adam from the stuff! Similarly, in His hands, our potential is limitless! Amen.
Edinburghs amazing
Went for a walk last week. I love Blackford Hill. Edinburghs amazing.
A few more photos:
Well done boys!
Thanks for making it fun to be a Newcastle fan again.
Keep walking
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. [Philippians 3:7-15]