Encouragement
Last night was obviously a low point. Today I had to make a run to Metropolis for work, and I listened to three albums on the trip: VH1 Behind the Music: Go Go's Collection, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and All That You Can't Leave Behind by U2. Achtung Baby is an album for times when love fails; All That You Can't Leave Behind is an album of hope, and I found that out today.
And...
And...
When I listen to the lyrics of Pontifex Maximus, they make me think. When I considered the lyrics on Yahweh today, I was reminded, perhaps in a revelation, perhaps through my own thought process, of something that struck me as particularly important.
God chose a group of people who weren't drastically different than any of their neighbors, and he made them the instrument of the salvation of the world. God had a plan that, according to the conservative historical estimate, lasted more than three thousand years before completion. And how did He give these people their character? How did He make them the tough-as-nails, uncrushable, incapable of implosion, even when separated from their homes and strewn haphazardly through the world?
He allowed them to be taken captive and forced into slavery.
I'm still worried. I'm still watching closely. I'm still going to conserve, and limit my expenditures, and avoid driving for the time being when it can be helped. I'm going to play it safe, and be responsible. However, I'm forced to accept a simple fact: in spite of thousands of years of oppression, decades of terrorist attacks and botched Arab invasion attempts, political attacks by nations from around the world, deportation, captivity, and nearly two millennia of wandering without a home, the Israelis retain their identity. They retain their vigor. They can't be defeated.
Kind of puts a hurricane in perspective, doesn't it? Don't get me wrong, what has happened is horrible, and the next few months may be the most trying time America has experienced in decades; but we can get through it, if we band together and refuse to accept failure as an option. If God can turn a few thousand displaced slaves into the most resilient race in the history of the world, our trials are not insurmountable. If God can use that resilient race, coupled with an empire of pagans, to redeem humanity, then our trials are not insurmountable.
Stow the sails, batton down the hatches, let the rudder go slack, and hold on for dear life, if that's what it takes; but don't give up.
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better now
You're stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if our way should falter
Along the stony pass
It's just a moment, this time will pass
And...
And I know it aches
And your heart, it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on...
And...
In a little while
Surely you'll be mine
In a little while I'll be there
In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I'll be home, love
When I listen to the lyrics of Pontifex Maximus, they make me think. When I considered the lyrics on Yahweh today, I was reminded, perhaps in a revelation, perhaps through my own thought process, of something that struck me as particularly important.
God chose a group of people who weren't drastically different than any of their neighbors, and he made them the instrument of the salvation of the world. God had a plan that, according to the conservative historical estimate, lasted more than three thousand years before completion. And how did He give these people their character? How did He make them the tough-as-nails, uncrushable, incapable of implosion, even when separated from their homes and strewn haphazardly through the world?
He allowed them to be taken captive and forced into slavery.
I'm still worried. I'm still watching closely. I'm still going to conserve, and limit my expenditures, and avoid driving for the time being when it can be helped. I'm going to play it safe, and be responsible. However, I'm forced to accept a simple fact: in spite of thousands of years of oppression, decades of terrorist attacks and botched Arab invasion attempts, political attacks by nations from around the world, deportation, captivity, and nearly two millennia of wandering without a home, the Israelis retain their identity. They retain their vigor. They can't be defeated.
Kind of puts a hurricane in perspective, doesn't it? Don't get me wrong, what has happened is horrible, and the next few months may be the most trying time America has experienced in decades; but we can get through it, if we band together and refuse to accept failure as an option. If God can turn a few thousand displaced slaves into the most resilient race in the history of the world, our trials are not insurmountable. If God can use that resilient race, coupled with an empire of pagans, to redeem humanity, then our trials are not insurmountable.
Stow the sails, batton down the hatches, let the rudder go slack, and hold on for dear life, if that's what it takes; but don't give up.
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