Entries from June 2008 ↓

Tuesday morning I misplaced my wallet. I looked in every logical and illogical place that it could be, but as of last night I had not found it. This morning, I got a call from J.Sarr telling me that one of the landscaping guys found it in the grass at the church. I know I looked a lot of places, but in the grass was not one of them.

It was a few days of committing the whole situation over to the Lord. I knew that He knew where it was, why I lost it, and what He wanted me to learn through it. I only needed to trust the Lord. I know that even if I never found my wallet, that God would be entirely faithful, but in His abundant grace allowed me to find it and nothing was missing from it.

On a much more serious note, my friend, Cliff Ames, recently lost his mother to cancer. I know his family would appreciate prayer.

I apologize if the language seems crude and inappropriate, but bear with me for a moment. My good friend, Kberg, stayed with the Sarrs for a few weeks and during that time took this video, which shows the girls, Ellie and Abby, playing outside. The funny part comes in the last 20 seconds and you are going to want your volume up to hear what Ellie says.

I want to draw your attention to two women who have posted in the last couple days and they have quoted some great men of the past. Both their posts and the great quotations from A.W. Pink and C.H. Spurgeon will do your soul good. The first is by my sister, who posted for the first time in two years on God’s sovereignty and the weather. The second is from my friend, Hannah Johnson, who posted on indwelling sin.

I’m convinced more and more that giving a meaningful “thank you” to someone is an art and a discipline. Giving thanks is a discipline because

-it does not come naturally -it requires you to stop and think about someone other than yourself -it requires that you are aware of God’s grace in other people -it needs to be practiced regularly -it glorifies God

I know from my own experience that it takes work to be able to write a thank you card which is specific to that person. I know how to roll out the Christian language so that it sounds like I have thought a lot about it, but I want to be able to speak in specifics, not generalities. So a person has been a blessing to me - why? I need to answer that question and tell that to them, not just stop at the blessing.

I have been surprised at how many things I am thankful for in other people that I had not recognized before. It only takes a little time and thoughtfulness and I have more than enough to write in a card or share to them face to face. I want to discipline myself to be one who not only thanks God, but also thanks people.

When tragedies occur, such as some one dying from a heart attack or a serious injury from a car crash or we hear of a huge weather phenomenon that wipes out thousands of people, we often turn our attention to death. We think about eternity and what will happen when we die. We are reminded of the fragility of human life and thus are thankful that we are still alive. Many deep feelings and thoughts that we do not often have, overtake us. I even recently have such thoughts when a dear 17-year-old friend went into cardiac arrest.

Calvin speaks of these type of thoughts. He says that God has made things on this earth to teach us that “human life is nothing but a vapor or shadow.” But then he says:

“But there is scarcely anything which we more carelessly consider or sooner banish from our memory; for we go about everything as if we want to make ourselves immortal.

If we watch a funeral or walk among the graves (or see a friend laying lifeless in a hospital bed), and thus clearly see the image of death before our eyes, we philosophize, I confess, about the vanity of life.

And even that does not happen every day, for often we are not moved at all.

But when we are, our philosophy is only short-lived; it vanishes as soon as we go away and does not leave the smallest trace behind.

It passes out of existence like the applause for an entertaining program.

We not only forget death, but the fact that we are mortals, as if no word concerning this has ever reached us, and we continue our foolish dream that we are to live forever.

If any man in the meantime reminds us of the proverb that man is only a creature of the day, we are willing to acknowledge this truth, but with such lack of attention that the idea of perpetual life keeps on lingering in our minds.

Who, then, can deny that we need to be warned not only by words, but that we should be convinced by every possible evidence that the present life is full of miseries!

For even if after we have become convinced of this, we hardly know how to stop our perverse and foolish admiration of it, as if life were nothing but one great accumulation of blessings.

But if it is necessary for us to be taught by God, it certainly is also our duty to listen to him when he speaks and arouses us from our sluggishness, that we may turn our backs upon this world and and try to meditate with all our heart on the life to come.

Calvin’s comments are incredibly insightful. He is basically saying that we may think about the brevity of life during certain situations, but as a whole we live as if we will live forever. I daily need to be reminded and taught about the empty, passing world that I live in because I am far too fascinated with it. May God continue to pull His bride’s affections heavenward.