i really hope that someday i will completely feel this from the inside out and be able to say this truthfully:
if someday, i lose my hands, my feet, my voice, my hearing, and my seeing. if i lose my ability to do everything i enjoy and my ability to enjoy everything i love. if i lose all my independence and my intelligence and any talent i may have and my ability to speak for myself. if i find myself always alone in a dingy apartment somewhere. if i lose all my family and all my friends--everyone whom i have some degree of closeness with. if i find myself completely abandoned and rejected by everyone i see. if i have to do everything in hiding, if i am hunted down and persecuted daily. if everyone misjudges and mistrusts me and no one truly knows me, and if everyone sees all the bad and none of the good in me. if i cease to make any kind of progress or helpful contribution, and if every attempt i make for anyone only makes more hassle for them. if everything i do for You leads to terrible things for me.
if i lose everything, i will still love and trust You.
obviously, some of this stuff goes against God's promises. but if it were somehow possible, i hope i would still be able to say that.
p.s.: on an entirely different note, and without getting into specifics, will you, Reader, please pray for courage and wisdom and patience in a particular situation for me? if you don't mind? thank you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7oV2-uU8sE
ReplyDeleteThe verses aren't really supposed to apply but...
Uh, yeah...
...I'm prayin' for yuh!
While it is very important to see how God can use weakness and suffering, and to think of our hardship as bringing us closer to Christ... I am thankful we do not have to experience difficulty at such an extreme.
ReplyDeleteThe gifts in this world, while secondary to the Giver Himself, tell me much of God's unmatched beauty and generosity-- especially where Christ's love through Christ's body on earth, the Church, is concerned. I hope my love for God would still endure in similar testing, but I don't think I would have as clear of a glimpse into who God if I instead could only see those things which are fallen.