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| “Beverly 79” |
Part 3 must now follow. We can’t dismiss the need for discipline, focus, enduring in times when things seem to be quite impossible. We will have many moments overwhelmed, many occasions of pain and disgust. We will not be spared the heartache. We will not find easy fixes for these times.
I must qualify my convictions—they were built in times of war, in times of battle, in times of defeat, in times of despair. “Disillusionment, O my faithful companion; disheartening, my enduring guide.”. Failure has been a friend, and mine has been tears. I lost my face, I lost my son, I lost my dignity and even my hope. My gain? Christ. O undeservingly yes— but nevertheless Him.
An easier message for you I have not in my bag. I weep to think I would trade anything of my trouble; I would not. In helplessness we discover Helps Giver, in pain, assuage Bringer, in loss we get the ultimate Gain, in death, The Alive One shows,
God’s plan is a sure one, and we sink. “when I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, when I was sinking down O my soul”. .The song says “Christ laid aside His crown for my soul” Yes, when I was sinking down, He laid aside His crown for my soul.
We have not some modern version of this life in Christ. We have the same life given to Paul, Peter, Martin Luther and Dr Carl Stevens. The life is to be poured out on the ground for others because “He bear the dreadful curse for my soul.” “He bear the dreadful curse for their souls”
Sweetness gains my soul now, not alive toward bitter, but opened to bliss. One by One we face the giants, and One by one we see them fall at the presence of Him. We see that the strength they muster, the authority they display, the intensity they work up, and the deception they master, are of nothing!— nothing at the sight of Him. No wound can wound a child of God who waits quietly at His feet, no foe can gain ultimate victory there.
We gird up, O yes we gird up. Loins of the mind must be girded, armor in place. We overcome evil with the Good— the same Good overcoming all my pain, wounds, and hurts. Its the Good of His Love, the good of Our mercy, the good of generosity, the good of forgiveness, the good of believing the best, the good of hoping against hope. Its the good of someone believing in you when no-one can, not even you.
Thompson’s “Hound of Heaven” closes this way: “Whom wilt thou find to love, ignoble thee, Save Me, save only me? All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms, But just that thou might’st seek it in My arms. All which thy child’s mistake Fancies lost, I have stored for thee at home.. .Love ya