Status Updates From Secure in the Everlasting Arms

cont’d

And it’s amazing what rest comes from the gentle fitting of self to its sphere.^

^John S. Dwight (1813-93) said, “Rest is the fitting of self to its sphere.” If in my “sphere” I find things out of place through someone else’s fault this is my opportunity to fit myself, to give a little, to do the small thing that should have been done by the other. Love is very patient, very kind, never rude, never selfish.

^We learn to love Him as we learn to “frame our heart to the burden,” as Samuel Rutherford said.^

^As I reminded my daughter Valerie’s (in the book I wrote as a wedding present to her, Let Me Be A Woman), you marry a sinner. There simply isn’t anything else to marry. So the husband sins against the wife and—let us wives not forget—he, too married a sinner.^

^But having been at this a good number of years, I am more and more aware of the difficulty of helping people to turn their eyes to Jesus. The world is, as Wordsworth put it, too much with us.^

Wordsworth again! I’m seeing it in so many different books!

^John Henry Newman (1801-1890) wrote, “To take up the cross of Christ is no great action done once for all; it consists in the continual practice of small duties which are distasteful to us.”^

cont’d

Do not crave so much to be perfect, but let your spiritual life be formed by your duties, and by the actions which are called forth by circumstances. Do not take overmuch thought for tomorrow. God, who has led you safely on so far, will lead you on to the end. Be altogether at rest in the loving holy confidence which you ought to have in His heavenly Providence.” (St. Francis de Sales)^

cont’d

New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves—a road
To bring us daily nearer God.

”Go in all simplicity; do not be anxious to win a quiet mind, and it will be all the quieter. Do not examine so closely into the progress of your soul.

^The following are a few of the stanzas of Keble’s hymn. Think about them while you peel a carrot, drive a truck, listen to a bore, receive criticism, or do any other task that seems odious:

New every morning is the love
Our waking and uprising prove;
Through sleep darkness safely brought,
Restored to like and power of thought.

If on our daily course our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,

^Love always means sacrifice.^

cont’d

And a faithfulness
That may finally embrace You,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Thomas Aquinas)^

^Give me, O Lord,
A steadfast heart,
Which no unworthy affection
May drag downwards;
Give me
An unconquered heart,
Which no tribulation
Can wear out;
Give me
An upright heart,
Which no unworthy purpose
May tempt aside.
Bestow on me also, O Lord my God,
Understanding to know You,
Diligence to seek You,
Wisdom to find You,

cont’d

I myself have been hauled out of the Slough of Despond by following the advice of the simple Saxon legend inscribed in an old English parsonage: “Doe the nexte thynge.”

Many a questioning, many a fear,
Many a doubt hath its quieting here.
Moment by moment, let down from heaven,
Time, opportunity, guidance are given.
Fear not tomorrows, child of the King—
Trust them with Jesus. Do the next thing!^

^Thomas Carlyle said, “Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by action.” There is wonderful therapy in taking oneself by the scruff of the neck, getting up, and doing something. While you are doing, time passes quickly. Time itself will in some measure heal, and “light arises in the darkness”—slowly, it seems, but certainly.

^Remember the assurance of St. Julian of Norwich: All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.^

^Faithfulness today is the best preparation for the demands of tomorrow.^

cont’d

What may be tomorrow’s cross I never seek to find.
My father says, “Leave that to Me, and keep a quiet mind.”
(Anonymous)^

cont’d

“As thy days so shall thy strength be” was Moses’ blessing for Asher—in other words, your strength will equal your days. God knows how to apportion each one’s strength according to that day’s need, however great or small. The psalmist understood this when he wrote, “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure” (16:5).

^We are meddling with God’s business when we let all manner of imaginings loose, predicting disaster, contemplating possibilities instead of following, one day at a time, God’s plain and simple pathway. When we try to meet difficulties prematurely we have neither the light nor the strength for them yet.

^A prayerful heart and an obedient heart will learn, very slowly and not without sorrow, to stake everything on God Himself.^

^I remember fixing the wounded leg of my dog. There was some struggle and a hurt crying but he kept licking my hand. The hand of the one who was hurting him and the hand of the one who was healing him were the same, and his endurance of the one rested in his trust in the other.^

(Isaiah 53:8, 10)

^It was the Lord’s will to crush Him. Ought we not to meditate on that when we are tempted to ask why God allows us to suffer?^

^New Year’s Day is a good time to fix one’s eyes on the only One who knows what the year is to hold.^

^Jim, whose wife has cancer, wrote to me, “The assignment is so hard, but always there are the gracious gifts—the winks of heaven—a friend stopping by, a plumber coming at the perfect moment. Coincidences? Not to one with the eyes of faith.”^

^To love God is to love His will. That which He gives we receive. That which He takes we relinquish, “as glad to know ourselves in the hands of God as we should be sorry to be in our own,” as Fénelon said.^