Nothing Changes Our Trust and Hope In …

Monday, September 9, 2024

two winter months, two summer months are HARD, right?

the rest is up to us?

No, it’s all up to us?

Psalm 40:4

Happy are those who make the Lord their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.

John 1:41

He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed).

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Words of Grace For Today

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Winters are harsh. When one does not have a home, an apartment or house, to shelter one from the weather, then one would do well to prepare, and to prepare well …

first to keep the rain and snow in all forms from one’s living area, whatever that may be.

For if one is wet at -40⁰, one will not survive long. If one has to continually shovel snow, that may provide good exercise, but after a while, and as one ages beyond one’s working years, that may indeed provide a requirement for survival that one may not meet.

Putting one’s trust in oneself is a fool’s life, a fool’s mistake.

There is summer to prepare for winter, at least those days that are neither too hot nor too smokey, during which one can construct whatever one can to keep water and snow that will become water when warmed out of one’s living area.

Putting one’s trust in one’s own efforts, necessary as they are, to keep water and snow at bay, and all the other challenges of winter, like dark and cold – putting one’s trust in one’s own efforts is also a fool’s life and a fool’s mistake.

The harsh days of winter like the bugs, smoke, and heat of summer, can simply drive one mad, in all senses of the word. One can be angry at the days, at life, at the circumstances that have led to one living without proper shelter, or at the way that the environmental challenges are more extreme than when one was young, or that age has limited one’s abilities, or that last year’s extremes have become this year’s normals.

One can become insane trying to understand the cruelty of people that have contributed to one’s circumstances, and the stupidity of those who continue to make it more difficult than it is already. But that kind of stupidity, cruelty, and the worldviews that support them as if they were normal simply cannot be understood.

Not any more than it is possible to understand clearly the insanity of the pursuers of violence, in wars of aggression (taking another country’s land), in civil wars (attempting at the cost of the civilian population to rule over the population), in bullies who use fists to communicate and insist on their own way, or of those who in such refined manners serve up lies to ensure they get their own way.

One must, facing the insanity of people and the harshness of the human messed up environment, place one’s hope in a gracious God, who can and will deliver one from all threats.

Following the invitation of the saints through the ages, we know we have found the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Saviour of the universe and of all souls therein.

So we say, too, also this day: Come and see, for we have found our Saviour. Nothing will make this trust waver. Not bugs-heat-smoke. Not rain, snow, dark or cold. Not bullies, liars, corrupt individuals or systems. Not even our successes, small as they are, of preparing as best possible for the coming days.

For we know, through all our trials and tribulations, God’s steadfast love and protection have accompanied us, and seen us through to green pastures and still waters, and peace no matter what the turmoil that swarms around us and the world.