Adversity, though none of us would ask for it, brings out our best, and from it we grow and mature. And when Jesus brings us those who are heavy laden and facing life's greatest trials, so we can love, encourage and help them in their deep adversity; we encounter problems so complex, lives so tangled with sorrow, sin and tragedy, that we soon see the miraculous hand of Christ working miracles to make a way, where there simply is no way.

Last night I witnessed that very thing at the jail where a thirtyish woman joined our service in her wheel chair. As the crush of people streamed in I recognized her face and mentioned it to her and she replied, "yes, I was here five years ago, but I was taller then." At first that took me by surprise and I didn't know what she meant, but as she wheeled in the room I saw she had no legs from the knees down. I later noticed she only had nubs where fingers once were.  While swimming in the Clackamas River with friends she scratched her leg on a rock, nothing serious, but it developed into the life threatening, flesh eating bacteria which ravaged her body and nearly took her life.

  Now there she sat, and after service I talked to this smiling, composed, mature young woman. I was immediately drawn to her warm and gracious charm; such strength of character was displayed as she recounted her tragedy and her long struggle, both physically and emotionally, over the last five years. When she attended the meeting five years ago she was just beginning to listen to the things of God, being raised an agnostic, now she sits a true believer.

  I woke this morning with thoughts of her swirling in my mind, and as I consider all the amazing people Jesus has introduced me to over my Christian life, in the most unlikely places, like the jail, the nursing homes, missions and rehab organizations, I remember the promise Jesus gives us --          

"Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full--pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back."

 "One of the reasons that we struggle spiritually, is because we live too exclusively with our equals; the weak herding the weak, the strong meeting with the strong; the rich surrounding themselves with the rich, and the taught fearing the more taught. We associate with those who think like we think, feel our feelings, live our life: we read the books which repeat our tastes, justify our opinions, confirm our admirations: we encourage each other in laughing at the excellence to which we are blind, and disbelieving the truth to which we have never opened our reason too, and shuffling away from the affections and obligations to which we have distaste." Martineau.

Answering Him

"When shall I be a man? he said,

As I was putting him to bed.

"How many years will have to be

Before time makes a man of me?

And will I be a man when I

Am grown up big?" I heaved a sigh,

Because it called for careful thought

To give the answer that he sought.

And so I sat him on my knee,

And said to him: "A man you'll be

When you have learned that honor brings

More joy than all the crowns of kings;

That it is better to be true

To all who know and trust in you

Than all the gold of earth to gain

If winning it shall leave a stain.

When you can bravely fight for victory sweet,

Yet bravely swallow down defeat.

And cling to hope and keep the right,

When you are kind and brave and clean,

And fair to all and never mean;

Nor use deceit instead of might;

When there is good in all you plan

That day, my boy, you'll be a man."

Edgar A. Guest. 

"Faith which worketh by love." Gal. 5:6

  "I take the words to mean that there are things for which love is itself the evidence. There is a familiar saying, "Seeing is believing." But it is equally true that "feeling is believing." There are some in this world who love because they believe, but I think there are a still larger number who believe because they love.  

I have seen two children, each animated by perfect trust in an earthly father, but each for a different reason. The one virtually said, "I trust him because he loves me"; the other said in effect, "I trust because I love him." Now, I think the larger number of the human race belong to the latter class. The amount of faith we put in others is quite disproportionate to our knowledge of them.

You will see two girls in the course of a few hours becoming mutual confidants. Why is this? It is because they have taken a liking for one another. There faith in each other has had nothing to work upon but love. There has not been time for experience. Love is the anticipation of experience. Love pays in advance; it gives the money before it receives the thing.

Divine love is no exception. God pays man in advance for services not yet rendered. I suppose that is what the prophet means when he cries, "Behold! His reward is with Him and His work before Him!" Love gives its confidence in advance. It waits not for proof. It lingers not for corroboration. It suspends not its trust till its object is weighed in the balance. It surrenders its faith unpaid for.

  My brother, be this thy faith in thy fellow man! Do not wait till thou hast proved him! Thou lookest abroad upon the lapsed masses; thou seest no beauty to be desired in them. Wilt thou then let them go? Is thy faith to be dependent on sight? Not if thou lovest. If thou lovest thy lapsed brother thou wilt hope all things for him. Love gives the benefit of the doubt to those who seem unpromising. Love imputes its own righteousness to those who are still in shadow. Love believes in tomorrow for those in a dark to-day. My brother, if thou lovest, thou shalt believe that all things are possible for man. Though as yet thou seest no rainbow; though as yet thou hearest no bells across the snow, though as yet there has come from the waters not even an olive branch of peace, still thou shalt believe. Love itself shall be thy rainbow; love itself shall be thy bell of hope; love itself shall be thy message from the flood. Humanity is still climbing the Dolorous Way -- fainting beneath her crosses, groaning amid her thorns. Wait not till she has conquered; wait not till she is crowned! Go out to own her in her rags! Take up her bitter cross and call it thine! And if men say to thee, "Why darest thou to hope for these withered leaves?" lay thy hand upon thy heart and say," Love believeth all things!"

George Matheson.

I've posted a piece about the migration from youth to adulthood with my take on it intermixed.

"When we reach the end of our teens our bold young faith that thinks nothing worthy can be hard if only met with good resolve, ends up dashing the familiar joy with new longings and repentances."

I begin to reminisce about days when I saw life and all I thought it had to offer and I was so sure I was well equipped to handle all that would come my way. So eager to jump into the fray. With youth comes the boundless optimism as well as energy, “fired at first sight with what the muse imparts, in fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts.” I think much of my life has been spent in intoxicated thinking that I had some wisdom or understanding of life, only to find I have been drinking shallow. So naively confident that I could see the heights, and the depths of life, taking life on the surface, thinking I saw all there was. “Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind”.
As life unfolds her endless mysteries it so humbles the soul, the infinite climb to reach just the base.

"Amid the fiercer struggle that sets in, the great thing needed is strength of Moral Denial, the courage to say No to all questionable people and unquestionable fiends."

When we get out on our own, and face life with its full force, we are so deluged with new and lesser moralities, it would take a saint not to compromise our childhood values. Freedom always brings its excesses; and where we once saw few R rated movies, now the parental restraint is gone and our weakened conscience allows for concession and with new friends, freedoms and control we are faced with fiendish sights and sounds, our youthful beliefs are challenged and some are held to but others bow to the blush of peers. All of this repels us and entices us at the same time, we find our youthful mind was no match for adult debate and our individual convictions give way to the prevailing wind and tide.  

"Meanwhile, the very faculties of thought are changing too. The appetite for facts is passing into an eagerness for truth, full also of deep anxieties."

I think this thought is very insightful, as a child most of our world of education is about facts, not theory or philosophy; and as we enter the world we are faced, if not accosted by, a thousand searches for truth we had never even considered much less held too. Most of our adversaries are hardly scholars or even second rate philosophers, but merely echoes of fragmented truth that have never been tested or tried. Those that you trusted for truth who have the benefit of a half century of seeking, and have seen, "Many a gaudy bubble that has not risen, but rather glitter, and burst; and conversely, many a modest good take secret root and grow." are quickly abandoned and dismissed. But we are humans, and we are drawn to the novel, the unconventional and the nonconformist's view has a strange appeal. 

"Sometimes this noble passion degenerately tends to disagreeable dogmatism, from the mind's having lost its childish source of trust, and not having gained the manly , and for awhile holding the faith neither in meek dependence on authority, nor in genial repose on the universal Reason and Conscience, but by the little personal tenure of private argument."

 I like the phrase, "Little personal tenure of private argument." This is the arena where most of our curious and novel debates take place, private discussions where new thoughts are hotly debated and everything is thought to be, because of our inexperience, new and enlightened; but as Solomon said thousands of years ago, "There is nothing new under the sun."  

 "And sometimes, it is productive of dark agonies of doubt and loneliness, drearier than death; leaving the soul exposed upon the field of conflict, without a God to strive for, or a weapon for the fight."

In this last thought I fear he doesn't go far enough, because he begins with, "And sometimes," and I suppose it is true, sometimes a new thought gives wind to our wings and we take flight, but with time our wings of wax melt with testing. Now this process may be repeated over and over again by some. One novelty of thought pursued after another, but with some, the callings of their childhood faith shines bright enough and they return home, not to a childhood faith once more, but to a more strenuous faith, a fuller understanding of simple truths that protect and lift the heart to heights that no cunningly devised fable or scientific rhetoric can approach, because this life is one of the heart, the spirit: and that alone comes from the shadow of His wings, the solid rock of His truths, and the security of Christ's love. And abiding in His love arms us with all the weapons we need for life and love.