Three Star Night

This is the season of Lent.
Of groaning and mourning.
Of death.
"But God"
Oh, the joy that those two words bring!
But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
Made us alive and saved us by grace.
Christ did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but took the form of a servant and dying on the cross.
He was forsaken so that we can be accepted.
Rejected so that we can be taken in.
Denied by the Father so we can become sons of God.

And so we mourn.
We mourn the human death of the God-man,
We mourn the wretchedness of our sin that required such a sacrifice.

We mourn, and yet we rejoice
For Immanuel is not far off
And we worship in the congregation.
We worship because he proclaimed righteousness to those yet unborn,
to we who were chosen before the creation of the world.

Sorry for going off-grid.  I normally write my posts on the weekends, but the majority of this weekend was spent "on the go."  I figure that now is a good time for a couple of guest posts.  This one is by Alex F.  Though he sent this to me awhile back, as I re-read it, I feel ministered-to all over again.  The Truth of Scripture truly is timeless and applicable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in all righteousness.  Praise be to God!

Have you noticed how difficult it is to see the end of a struggle when you are in the midst of it?  It seems like once you hit the floor, just lifting your head is unbearable.  Okay, maybe that is a bit too melodramatic and poetic, but it’s true!  When you are in the thick of things, one of the greatest problems is not seeing how it could ever end.  There are about a million sermon illustrations for this idea.   One memorable illustration is of the swimmer embarking on an epic swim across the English Channel who gave up when the fog rolled in and obscured the opposite  shore.  They no longer could see the goal, no longer could see how close they were to the end, and they gave up. It wasn’t until it was all over that they saw just how very close they were to the end.  They would have finished if only they had persevered.  See, a good lesson for all of us, if only knowing there is a problem equated solving that problem.

This all comes to mind because I decided to take a moment out of my day (just a moment, mind you) to take stock of how my week has gone so far.  It was a tiring and stressful week mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  Finally it was over and pretty much the culmination of all that and a return to normalcy, or as normal as I can get, anyway.  And I thought, how did you get here, Alex?  I thought back to the beginning of the week and how utterly exhausting it was.  Only by prayer, perseverance, and the grace of God, I made it through.  And although my circumstances really didn’t change throughout the week, no other subsequent day was as difficult as that first. 

However, I distinctly remember thinking on that first day, “I can barely make it through today, I will never last like this.  It is unbearable and it will not end.”  There was no reason I thought this trial should or would ever end.  I prayed that it would, but I hardly believed God would answer my prayers.  But, in the moment, it was enough just to know that He heard them.  Now, looking back, He clearly did answer my prayers because after that first day I wasn’t faced with the thoughts, accusations, and feelings that had discouraged me so.  And in God’s wisdom and grace those trials did not leave me empty handed.

 Now, looking back, the word I hear from God is that our suffering lasts but a little while.  Though we cannot always see it, there is an end.  And it is more than just an end, but is the hope for a new beginning in the fullness of life in the hope of Christ Jesus.  So persevere!  Draw on the strength of the Spirit and put one foot in front of the other.  The goal is at hand!

I could have used that encouragement earlier this week, to correct my hopelessness.  God does meet us in our suffering, and this is the joyous Truth that got me through my struggle More importantly, though, He is our deliverer.  He is mighty to save us from our struggles and sins, trials and temptations.  He is faithful and true to deliver us to Himself.  Though the trial may last for the night, joy comes in the morning.  And no matter how long the night lasts, a day, a year, a “season” or even the rest of your life: God is mighty to save.  He will lead His children home and He will wipe away every tear and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

Yay, another guest post!  Since I'm frequently talking about my nail polish obsession, what it means to be a Christian female, or my legal studies, I asked my one friend who has/ is/ does none of these things to share from his perspective.  And he agreed!

Alex F. is a long-time friend of mine and supporter of the blog.  In fact, you've unknowingly read a lot of his ideas before because I often plagiarize from him (though, mostly with permission).  My favorite Alex-inspired post came from a comment he made about childhood when we were watching our PK running around the church with reckless abandon.  More recently, he was "the friend" in this post about goals.

At this point, I would provide a link to his blog, if he had one, so you all could benefit from his wisdom and wit.  But until he starts a blog of his own, he has an open invitation to guest-post here on TSN.  I might even start a new tag for his posts.

The Call

The Call. Have you ever received it? That little miraculous moment when apparently God reaches down from heaven, extends his finger, and taps you right on the head and you know just what you are supposed to do with your life. Recently I've been thinking about this concept and trying to piece together what God's "call" for my life is.

Then I did something dangerous. I actually took a look at my life. And as much as I know that the "T" in TULIP stands for Total Depravity, it always surprises me just how deep my sin goes. Through some Godly direction from some close friends I realized that I already was pursing a calling of my own making. I apparently had my own idea of what my purpose in life was and pursued it with an, ironically, religious fervor. Being single, I assumed my highest calling in life was to get married. I honestly believed that God really was not using me to my full potential by keeping me single and sought to rectify His oversight. Certainly He would be pleased with my ingenuity. True to form, I underestimated God.

So now I write this, still in the process of breaking down marriage as an idol in my life. But worship abhors a vacuum. If I truly wanted to cast down any idols in my life, I had to replace my "highest calling" with God. So again the question is, what is God's highest calling for me? And through the example and advice of Godly friends and through reading through the gospels I found God's calling. It is a pursuit of Him and a reliance on Him. God's purpose for my life is His sanctification of my life. The gradual removal of sin and reorientation toward Christ-likeness. If that is God's purpose, then there is no higher calling for my life than that. So now I resolve (and re-resolve, and re-re-resolve) to pursue that purpose. To pursue, love, and enjoy God in and with my mind, my heart, my strength, and my life.

For me, at this point in my life, I turned to marriage as an idol. But now, at my job, I can see the same temptation to turn toward work or the pursuit of money or a career as my highest calling. I could devote all my time and energy to work harder and do better and look to these things for my peace, and hope, and joy. But that would be walking into the same trap, that by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit I now see clearly. Marriage and a career both do take hard work and striving, but they must be pursued in a Godly way. They can't be central. They can't be ends unto themselves. They are means by which God fulfills His plan to sanctify us and sanctify and save those around us.

Now I have contentment in God's plan for me, whether it includes marriage or not. God's plan for me is my sanctification and to accept me into His kingdom when His work for me here is done. And I can think of no higher, no better calling than that. So I am satisfied that God will complete that work that He set out to do. I can be thankful that where I am now, even in my singleness (which is crazy to think, right?), is where God has chosen to best sanctify me. I think for the first time I understand Paul's words when he urges the Corinthians to "remain as you are." So praise God for that; at the very least, I understand His word better.

So what now? What of you? Is there a calling you pursue wholeheartedly? Are you thankful for where you are now? Thankful that you are there by the grace of God, for the work He has for you, in particular, to do? Just remember there is no greater calling in life than to pursue the One who called us to life.

I play a lot of Tetris (which explains my Tetris  related posts that pop up from time to time.  The site I play on provides a weekly mission that you can complete for points, such as "perform X back-to-back combos" or "beat Y opponents in a multiplayer game."  This week's mission was to perform 15 Tetrises in a single game.

15 Tetrises.  That's manageable.  I started the game and set up my Terminos (the little block things).  1 Tetris.  2 Tetrises...3...4...

The first few were easy enough, but as I racked up points, the game sped up.  I couldn't solely perform Tetrises, so I cleared a few single lines here and there, with the occasional double, and kept making Tetrises when I could.

Before I knew it, I completely lost track of how many Tetrises I had performed.

The game sped up so fast, that I stopped trying to make Tetrises altogether.  I was just frantically trying my best to simply not "die."

After awhile of proceeding like this, a few thoughts came to me:
1) Why am I playing this game? (I normally play a multiplayer game instead of a single player game)
Oh yeah, I'm doing this week's mission.

2) What was the mission?
..................Oh wow.  I don't even remember.  But I had better keep clearing these lines or else I'm going to die.  What was that mission?  Oh yeah...I think I was supposed to perform Tetrises.

3) Well the game's going way too fast to set up the board now.  How many Tetrises did you make already?
I have no clue.  I guess I'll just have to wait until I die to find out.

It turned out that I did meet the requirement for Tetrises, but you probably don't care about that.  That's not the point of this story.

The point is that I had a mission (literally), and I started to complete it but then I got busy.  Things became really fast-paced, and I was just trying to survive.  And in the midst of the hustle and bustle, I completely forgot what the mission was.  Completely.  And at the end, I wasn't even sure if I accomplished what I was supposed to do; I had to wait in suspense to see if the computer would tell me "well done, good and awesome Tetris person."

I'm laying it on a bit thick here, but only because I think it's important.  What is our mission here on Earth?  To love God with our hearts, souls, and strength.  To love others as ourselves.  To defend the widow and the orphan.  To proclaim the Gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the world.  To pick up our crosses daily.  To abide in Jesus as He abides in us.  To put off the old man and put on the new.  To act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before God.

Friends, this is a lot more than performing 15 Tetrises.  For starters, these missions are never actually "complete."  And on top of these, we also each have our own missions.  There are good works that have been set out in advance for us to do.





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So pause for a bit and think about what your mission is.  Have you forgotten it?  Have you been making every effort to pursue it?  Or has life gotten too fast-paced with Terminos piling up all around you?


And regardless of how you answer those questions, whether positively or negatively, remember this: praise to Jesus Christ who gives us the victory.