{"id":10158,"date":"2023-02-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=10158"},"modified":"2023-02-17T11:33:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T18:33:52","slug":"alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=10158","title":{"rendered":"Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Forever?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sunday 19 February 2023<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sometimes Both Paths and<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Choices Lead<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalms 42:9<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say to God, my rock, \u2018Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 14:23<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words of Grace For Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are, as Henri had experienced in spades, junctures in life\u2019s torturous winding ways, when one has nothing left but to beg God:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why have you forgotten me?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus finds himself alone many times, and seeks God\u2019s assurance in prayer, except the last time Jesus cries out that he knows that God has forsaken even him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if we experience the same abandonment, it should not shock or surprise us … and yet it does, and it overwhelms us, and it leaves us lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better would be to live on, as a leaf fallen from a tree in autumn blown about until one comes to rest on terra firma, good only for fertilizer for other life forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we are though, abandoned by God and the sun may shine, but not for us. The winds may blow gently and the rains may fall softly, but not for us. People may smile and celebrate, but not for us, and certainly we are not smiling and celebrating!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live on, but as shells lost in the primordial chaos of void before creation. Living is groundless, meaningless, directionless, purposeless, and dark. Oh so dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those hours, days, weeks, years, decades even, our only hope (completely unaware of this hope\u2019s possibility – so detached, forlorn, and empty as we remain, totally hopeless) is<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that others will pray for us,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that Jesus will pray for us, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that the Holy Spirit will do everything to save us, for we have nothing to give towards such a rescue, confession, repentance and possible renewal to life lived abundantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet that is what God does for each of us, each day, especially in our darkest times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, God would so delight in demonstrating how God can save even the most lost among us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Like you!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like me!?)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forever? Sunday 19 February 2023 Sometimes Both Paths and All Choices Lead … … … Nowhere! Psalms 42:9 I say to God, my rock, \u2018Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?\u2019 Matthew 14:23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by … Continue reading “Alone”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,63,29,42,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dark-and-light","category-morning-time-of-day","category-perspective","category-stupidity","category-trees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10158"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10171,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10158\/revisions\/10171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}