You would think only so much can go wrong
Calamity only strikes once
And you assume this one has suffered her share
Life will be kinder from here
Oh, but sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?
But our Hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our Hope is unchanged
How do we comprehend peace within pain?
Or joy at a good man's wake?
Walk a mile with the woman whose body is torn
With illness but she marches on
Oh, 'cause sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear?
In my sociology class, I'm learning that there are a lot of broken people in the world. Some of my floor mates are fed up with the sins of the world but they don't know what to do about it. They just want to move off to some island far away from the sorrows of the world and laugh at those who stay in it. It breaks my heart to see people giving up and accepting the brokenness as the way things are supposed to be. My roommate is similar. She confessed to me last night that she wants to stop calling herself a Christian because she's afraid to be a hypocrite. She has the right idea, to not be a hypocrite, but absolutely the wrong way to go about doing so. And she's afraid to continue the fight to not being a hypocrite because she thinks she's gone way too far from God. But I shared with her my devotion, which happened to be about perseverance, Hebrews 10:19-39. And I remembered this song as well.
I think one thing that really defines who we, as Christians are, is our hope. How do we face our struggles instead of running away from them? Where does a person who does not have Christ find hope? "How do we comprehend peace within pain?" I think our hope is that no struggle we face can overcome us because He has overcome the world. If God is an all-powerful God, He can make anything capable of glorifying Him, including our sins, clumsy ways of serving him, and including our failures. Nothing can hinder God from carrying out His will. Even if I say "no", to Him, if He's going to use me, He's going to use me. I have no say. That is sooooo cool!!
By the way, I always get goosebumps when I hear "but she marches on."
1 comment:
AMEN, annie =]! I am so happy that God has revealed this to you; it seriously is because of the hope of Jesus that carries us, especially in light of all the terrible stuff in this world... As a soci major, I can confidently say that my faith in Jesus is what anchors my hope; it is not in mankind's ability to heal itself (because soci so bleakly paints, the world is just way too screwed to to heal), but it is found in the almighty power of our Father, through the redeeming power of His Son Jesus, and the unstoppable force of the Holy Spirit.
Keep on encouraging your roommates! After taking a look, I really like that v35-39: "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, 'He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.' But we are NOT of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."
And thank you for your encouragements to me to not give up =). God bless you, especially as you shine His light amongst your friends at SB!
p.s. extra cool too, cuz this is like the third separate time God has encouraged me from Hebrews ch 10 in the past couple weeks. I should probably take a look at it more closely x]
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