Kingdom Note from R.C. Sproul, Jr.

  I love his perspective in this note... and how often do we think that we are only being effective for Christ when we are at our strongest?

I’m tired, and my dear wife is happy about it. Two weeks of speaking and travelling among the saints in Colombia, South America has left me run down, fighting a cold, and muddle-headed. My wife, God bless her, is no sadist. Her joy over my weariness is perfectly understandable. She likes “Tired Me” because “Tired Me” is much more soft, attentive, emotional and tender than “Energized Me.” I suspect that there are other husbands like me, and other wives like my own.

Having been through this pattern before I was tempted to think nothing of it. It’s a nice bonus that my wife is blessed by this current state of mine. And I had always been content to discount the phenomenon as not touching on the real me, tough guy that I am. But for some reason, perhaps because I watched Inception on my flight back from Colombia, I am not left wondering this- what if “Tired Me” is the real me?

What if my weariness doesn’t obscure, but instead reveals who I actually am? What if I expend energy, when I have it to spare, suppressing my feelings? What if Andrew Peterson’s song The Queen of Iowa drives me to tears because it should, and that something is wrong with me when it doesn’t? What if my Shannon’s smile, my Donovan’s hugs, Darby and Delaney’s singing voices, Erin Claire’s thoughtfulness, Maili’s stories, Reilly’s  prayer requests, and Campbell’s overflowing love for his siblings are supposed to keep me perpetually choked up? What if “Tired Me” is better at sympathizing with Yolie and Sue and Eileen and Tim and Joni in all the challenges they are facing?

Indeed, what if God in His good providence, sees to it that I am more tired, so that I might be more like His Son? Maybe that’s why I should be getting up earlier to pray. Maybe that’s why I should be working harder, not so that I might get more done, but that more might be done in me.

Our prayers expose the folly of our strategies. We ask for strength, because we think it will do the kingdom good. But the kingdom grows in our weakness. We ask for health, thinking it will make us more effective, when it might just make us more affected- pretending to be strong and bold. We ask for ease, which only makes us more at ease in Babylon. What we ought to be asking is to be more like Jesus. He had no place to lay His head. He was acquainted with sorrows. He carried the burden of our sins, and drank the Father’s cup. And through it all He is what we are supposed to want to be.  Lord, make me tired. Make me weak. Make me tender and make me soft. Make me reach out to hold my wife, to squeeze my children. Make me more like your Son, for the sake of His kingdom, for the sake of His saints, and for the sake of my soul.


I received this reminder last night: "You don't have to be strong all the time, you know." 

 That has been, and still is, my strongest temptation, and I suspect that it is for many people- the desire to be strong, not to have failures, and certainly not to be perceived by others as weak or silly or foolish. 

Well, guess what? Sometimes we are weak. We all have failures, memories that never fade completely, and moments where we are weak, physically or emotionally or both. As the chorus of a Rich Mullins song says, 

 We are frail
We are fearfully and wonderfully made
Forged in the fires of human passion
Choking on the fumes of selfish rage
And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are 

  

At those moments all I want to do is get through the situation, selfishly focusing on myself and forgetting that there may be a deeper lesson to be learned- 

  And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

 One final thought: Christ, our Savior and Lord, the One who sustains the whole universe, came to earth as a helpless baby. Perhaps we should follow the example of Jesus and allow ourselves the freedom of not always being strong. After all, we're not ultimately in control anyway, and we'll never be fooling God.

  His grace is sufficient. 

Merry Christmas!

And you show that you are a letter of Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.
~2 Corinthians 3:3 ♥

I love that image of being a letter of Christ, written by the Spirit of God, and of the difference between tablets of stone and human hearts. One of my absolute favorite things is a hand-written letter, so the word picture really struck me when I read that today. Blessings!

Yesterday, Dad told me that I needed to listen to the Focus on the Family broadcast for the day. While listening to it, I was reminded of the lyrics of a song I had heard somewhere, and got the inspiration for this poem (the very first line is a paraphrase, a very vague one, of what I remember of the song)
Right now, I don't know who I'll marry, or even, realistically, if I will get married, despite a certain few people's claim to know more than me about my own life. But I hope someday to give this to my husband. (I cannot claim to be a great poet, but prose didn't quite fit what I wished to say)

do you know, that you're my hero?
yes, it's true, you are
for in your eyes there's a far
and a deepening maturity
that can only come to those
who are going to God for security
and whose souls rose
above this world's complacency

do you know, you're the second, final hero to me?
my daddy was first
and he gave me a thirst
for a real hero- a man, not just any guy
one day, Dad will give that primary role
to you- a man who won't lie
or play with my heart, but give his full
affection and protection with nary a sigh

do you know, that you'll always be my hero?
you need not always fight
the dragon for me. Indeed, the sight
of your smile, and the light in your eyes
is enough. For, it's more than an action
that won me- it's your heart; and mine cries
for a hero of strength and noble compassion

do you know, you're my hero, and no circumstance can alter that?
I pray you'll always be able to see
your children and grandchildren, and remember me
but if age or disaster takes that and more,
know it changes not how I see you
and though I cannot know what the future has in store,
I trust the One who does, and to you both am true

Jostie Flicks - Love You

A very well done independent Christian film, with a wonderful message. It is well worth watching. :)

Teach me to number my days/Teach me to make the days count

Forever is composed of nows. ~Emily Dickinson 

 How would you like your forever to look? How does your 'now' look? 

~are you loving people, and telling them so?

~are you loving the Lord, communicating with Him, and studying His Word? 

'Now' may not seem to be very important, but it is- the present moment shapes each future one and, eventually, your entire life. If this passing second were personified, it would say, like Pig-Pen in the Peanuts cartoon, "Kind of makes you want to treat me with more respect, doesn't it?"