Nil desperandum

"I should like to remove the feeling of hopelessness with which some regard the nations….as if their doom was sealed and their populations given over to God to fill up the measure of their wickedness; as if the Gospel and the Bible had come too late…

"The Word of God is not bound; nor has it become feeble like the words of man.  Men may become disheartened and lose their confidence in the Divine record.  But there it stands in its old strength; ready to do battle with all the phases of modern skepticism, as with those of ancient superstition; equally able to cope with the sophistries of infidelity, as with the subtleties of pantheism.  Still, as it has always been, the fire that melts the flint, the hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, the sword that pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.

"Let us do justice to the Book of God, and to the gospel of Christ, in dealing with the chaos, far or near.  With such weapons we may face the evil hopefully.  Nil desperandum. (Despair not at all.)  The word of the Lord is quick and powerful.  We may trust it thoroughly.

--taken from Horatius Bonar, Christ is All

He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.  Isaiah 33:6 

*photos taken in Indonesia, July

13 Lessons...#13 Hold Lightly

Well, seeing how it is Friday the 13^th and that I never finished my 13 Lessons Learned in 13 years of Homeschooling last year, perhaps it is a good opportunity to say that this first week of school has been somewhat of a disaster, at least from a coordinated, scheduled, organized and new-textbook shiny point of view.  And yes, I did see that blog post featuring that beautiful little schoolroom with the library nook and everything so tidy and conducive to proper education!

Monday was our first day of school on the calendar. We had gone out of town on the previous weekend, expecting to return by 9  Monday and hit the opening note on a wonderful school year.

The previous Friday’s wee first hours of the morning sealed our fate for the week.  A huge storm swept through following weeks of sunny, gorgeous weather, with thunder and lightning like we’ve not seen out west.  Come Friday dawn we had a few surprises.  Like chasing down two driver's licenses that had been inadvertently left at a meeting the previous night across town.With quite enough already we were just climbing in the car to head out two hours late when we got a call: the mountain pass we were crossing had been closed due to landslides, requiring a longer journey around.  Really, the last straw. Well, without going into details, we had an awesome day anyway arriving 8 hours after planned, and a wonderful weekend.  But Monday morning we found that the second Pass we’d come over on was also closed now.  With more complications than are interesting to you, we found ourselves home at 6 that night.  All day long I kept reminding the kids it was the first day of school after all, but they wouldn’t buy it.  Especially when I looked longingly after the water-skier out on the placid lake and envied; this sealed my fate against being a suitable or effective schoolmarm.  We did, however, listen to Voddie Baucham’s Why All Children are Resistant to Education, which may become an opening staple.

Back to our Friday surprise.  In some bizarre exploit of the storm (another explanation please, someone?), all the windows on my husband’s car opened during the night.  And the sunroof.  Three inches of rain in the cupholders, so one can imagine the state of leather seats and floor. What exactly does one do with this?  We packed the one car while mopping and shop-vac’ing the other; and left it with a heater going inside. 

Which of course blew the breaker and so it and garage appliances were off all weekend.

And the storm also blew the phone and internet box.  So bright and early Tuesday, our second (first?) day of school, the internet and phones are down for two days.  No matter that they have a number of online classes starting in those two days.  Really, we don’t believe in hanging out at coffee shops and friend’s houses to attend class, but ya gotta do…

Did I mention that one of them came down sick all week?  And that my aging mother who lives downstairs had a severe flare-up of health issues, almost landing in the hospital? 

 

Because after that we have to talk about how my husband read that coffee grounds helps get odors out of cars, so he the-man-who-thinks-coffee-solves-all-things had some fresh ground at Costco and spread them all over in his car.  Except that his carpet is a very light tan.  So this morning at 5:45 the girls are wondering why they are hearing the shop-vac going? And ten blackened rags later I’ve got most of the stains removed from the carpet.  Except that the person we’re meeting for PE is calling and wondering why we’re not there yet, and of course I forgot entirely about that part of the morning.

Really, I could go on.  There’s much more.  But the fact is, the two remaining students of the three are excited to be starting, are not daunted by a very heavy school load this year, and have cheerful and interested attitudes about their studies.  So we’re blessed in beginning this journey for the 14^th time.  And all the things that went wrong were still mere accidentals, things that people in other countries deal with daily as a matter of course.  Then we can never forget those suffering greatly across the world in the conflagration of epic national demises, even now on these days that we count petty mishaps.

And about the disastrous week.  And that 13^th Lesson…from Indonesia, where plans changes minute by minute and nothing can be counted upon except that the sun comes up, our son brought home this lesson: that regardless, God is faithful, and that shifting and changing schedules (they missed their planes both going to Singapore and coming from Tokyo), messed-up plans and seeming disasters are all in God’s loving and sovereign care, and that the way He eventually works all things to His glory and our good is far in excess of any story we could ourselves imagine.  We don’t see the intertwined providences that unwind over years and generations.

He wrote out a little presentation he gave at church, and ended with this:  “Throughout the entire trip, the recurring theme was “hold lightly”.  Hold lightly to our plans, to our schedules, to our possessions, to our aspirations, but hold fast to the promise of God that His mercies are new every day.  And when all plans are stripped away and we have nothing left, that He will give us enough strength to make it through that day.  And the next.” 

Well-Skilled in the Mystery

Ah, bliss.  A few moments to myself in a recent evening, watching the sun set on the sunflowers and zinnias, send pink cotton and then recede into dusk.  Half a dozen dragonflies bright blue and neon yellow tagged around the pond and zipped up together into the sky, then one would come and hover six feet in front of me wondering what alien invaded their space.  A frog yelped some unintelligible complaint and scattered into the pond.  Contentment!

Interesting conversation this morning about our upcoming ladies retreat on contentment:  If every lady has different definitions of happiness and yes, of what would make them content, how do we even discuss it meaningfully, as if one-size-fits- all? 

It matters  not who and what.  The soul-filling satisfaction is found in Christ the Person, our Redeemer, Friend, Intercessor...” I have a sufficient portion between Christ and my soul abundantly to satisfy me in every condition…”

“To be well-skilled in the mystery of Christian contentment is the duty, glory and excellence of a Christian.”

We don’t choose a course of virtue to pursue contentment and then craft the details of our heart.  It is beyond us.  It is a mystery.

Once when she was maybe 2, our youngest waxed artistic on the couch with a ballpoint pen.  When I walked into the room, I did not exhibit a gentle and quiet spirit.  She took one look at me and launched herself practically mid-air into her brother’s lap to escape certain doom.  Not that unlike our response to the looming condemnation of the law apart from resurrection grace.  We launch ourselves into the arms of a Christ who has turned the doom of our inability to beg, borrow or steal true contentment apart from Him into the gift of His transformation of our ugly places, our sin, into His glory.  How can we not exult in such a reality, royal sons and daughters that we now are!

*italicized quotes from Jeremiah Burroughs' Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

Bountiful Gifts

Wonderful words from Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves:

“The very nature of the Triune God is to be effusive (expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner), ebullient (cheerful and full of energy), and bountiful; the Father rejoices to have another beside Him, and He finds His very self in pouring out His love.  Creation is about the spreading, the diffusion, the outward explosion of that love…."

 

“He is then, the source of all that is good, and that means He is not the sort of God who would call people to Himself away from happiness in good things.  Goodness and happiness are to be found with Him, not apart from Him…

“And the bountiful nature of the triune Creator makes all the difference in how we view the creation…as it is, there is something gratuitous about creation, an unnecessary abundance of beauty, and through its blossoms ad pleasures we can revel in the sheer largesse of the Father.  In fact, said CS Lewis, even if our views of God prevent us from doing so, this is just what the animals do.  Writing to his friend Owen Barfield shortly after WWII, he remarked, “Talking of beast and birds, have you ever noticed this contrast: that when you read a scientific account of any animal’s life you get an impression of laborious, incessant, almost rational economic activity….but when you study any animal you know—what at once strikes you is their cheerful fatuity, the pointlessness of nearly everything they do.  Say what you like, Barfield, the world is sillier and better fun than they make out.”

 

“It makes all the difference:  is this world a desert of mere, grim survival—a workhouse for the gods—or is it the gift of the most kind and generous Father?

“And not only is God’s joyful, abundant, spreading goodness the very reason for creation; the love and goodness of the triune God is the source of all love and goodness.  John Owen wrote that the Father’s love for the Son is the fountain and prototype of all love….and all love in the creation was introduced from this fountain, to give a shadow and resemblance of it.  Indeed, in the triune God is the love behind all love, the life behind all life, the music behind all music, the beauty behind all beauty and the joy behind all joy.  In other words, in the triune God is a God we can heartily enjoy—and enjoy in and through His creation."

All photos I took in Alaska, from Seward to Denali--what a place to experience God's creative mind!