Problems are for Solving

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalms 42:1-11)

Years ago a friend wrote a song based on this Psalm:

Where is my joy, when all around is sorrow?

Where is my light when night is all I see?

Why is my soul in agony despairing, where is my hope, my song of victory?

I shall again praise my God. There may be those who wonder where He is when sorry strikes like it has to my family this week. I know where He is. He is holding me together. He is keeping me from falling. And He keeps despair and death at the door. I mourn in hope because of His grace, and today I will get out of bed because I know He lives, He loves, and He sustains my soul. Lucy Anne followed those words with:

My joy is in the God of my salvation

His Word will light the shadows of my heart.

So I will hope in God who is my comfort,

Who gives a song of joy when sorrows start.

May God give all who grieve that song of joy today–and may every one of us pant for His love and grace as the dear for water.

Christ, Not Feelings « Of First Importance
If you seek the Lord Jesus Christ and find him there is no need to worry about your happiness and your joy. He is our joy and our happiness, even as He is our peace. He is life, He is everything.

This was an encouraging note from Dr. Lloyd-Jones for me today when I really needed it.

HT: David Coyer

This past month my family and I were in Washington, DC and stayed at a hotel in Bethesda, Maryland. On the Monday evening we were there we walked down the road to Cesco Trattoria, an Italian place that the hotel desk staff recommended.

Oh, my!

From the freshly baked bread, to the bottle of Chianti, to the freshly made (on site) pasta dishes and the meat that we had (a filet and some venison) with the pasta everything was amazing. Truly fantastic to the point where I could not stop exclaiming how good it was.

I have eaten out quite a bit in my life and worked in some mighty fine establishments, and this is by far the best meal I have had in recent memory, possibly my whole life. We sat around the table, the children, Raquel, Gabrielle, and Theresa and me waxing and enjoying and in a froth about how good this food was. The wine was perfect for the meal and we just ate and ate and were filled with joy at the artistry of the chef.

Midway through the meal it hit me, and I made an announcement to the table: Do you all realize that the food in heaven is better than this?

Better. Better in unimaginable ways.

As I wrote yesterday I have been longing for heaven quite a bit of late, and so Continue Reading »

I’d been wanting to start writing again–and to do it regularly, and now for a little bit at least I have been. I’ve had an idea for a series of posts based upon a few things, and would like to publish it as a series of columns of sorts. Maybe I’ll get some weekly posts done that will be part of this series and continue writing daily posts that are a bit shorter, more pointed.

This past year has been a rough one for me. I’ve been getting stretched on all sides in a bunch of different ways. As I was listening to an old Michael W. Smith album two things struck me. The first was that the album seemed to fit together as a thematic unit in a way that some albums do, but many don’t. The second was that where the songs seemed to be coming from were describing how I’ve been and felt in recent days.

The series, of which this is the first installment, is based on Michael W. Smith’s album, Live the Life.

The first song is called Missing Person.

Missing Person

Another question in me
One for the powers that be
Its got me thrown and so
I put on my poker face
And try to figure it out
This undeniable doubt
A common occurrence
Feeling so out of place

Guarded and cynical now
Cant help but wondering how
My heart evolved into a
Rock beating inside of me
So I reel, such a stoic ordeal
Where’s that feeling that I don’t feel?

A while back I wrote a post about wearing masks.  Sometimes we also call this wearing a poker face.  When we don’t fit in someplace, or feel like we don’t fit in someplace (which is more likely the case) we cover up who we are and how we feel. 
Continue Reading »

Before I broke my sidebar the other day, over to the right you’d see a link to books I’m reading now. That list hasn’t changed in a while. One of the books is finished (still waiting on a review to be done) and the others are progressing ever so slowly. Lately not at all. I’ll update the list when I get time.

Life being hectic, I finally started examining some things, and with a friend’s help I realized that I had overspent my time. My money was doing fine, but I overspent my time.

So I picked up a new book.

It’s called A Minute of Margin by Richard Swenson, MD. It’s short reflections about making room around your life so that you have breathing room–much like margins on a printed page.

A recent reading, #8, was on financial margin, and I found it encouraging to read in the context of my daily life.

He writes:

In giving, you are ushered into a world where cynicism and hatred have been banished. You are considering others before yourself. You are choosing heaven as the place to put your treasure. You are doing what God asked you to do, and what He did Himself. In giving, you are pleasing Him.

A few years ago I had a conversation with a friend that convicted me about giving. I had been generous from time to time in the past but rarely did I consciously think about how I could give to others in an organized way. His thoughts about others were an encouragement to me that caused our family to think differently about giving. Since then we have steadily increased the giving we do to others and ministries over and above our tithe. And in that I have found what Swenson wrote to be true,

a kind of joy that begins with the thought of giving, with the declaration of freedom in your soul that, indeed, [we] belong to God. And the joy culminates in the act of giving, often a secret except in the spotlight of heaven.

I don’t write this to call attention to the giving I have done (indeed it is God working through my friend who ought to get credit for any good I could do) but to let you know that giving can and does truly bring joy to the giver as well as those who receive. Consider your budget and see if you have margin. Find that margin and then find joy in giving it away. Find the joy in sacrificing what you have for the sake of others and see God bless you time and time again in the sacrifice and His returning of the blessing where “it is more blessed to give than receive.” After all, the One Who said that never lies.

UPDATE: I changed my template and the sidebar now has that link again.