I dug for this one....
It came to mind today. This past weekend I seemed to hear one bad news story after another....
A friend whose daughter is having financial and marital problems, a friend with a young husband struggling to recover from a massive heart attack and figure it out somehow, financially. Then into church tonight where a woman literally cried about her grown children and the major destructive problems they are facing this week....once a mom, always a mom. And then, this morning, as I clicked onto my Yahoo main page, I read that 53,000 Citicorp workers are going to lose their jobs....It brought to mind this.....
It was appropriate for today...
It came to mind today. This past weekend I seemed to hear one bad news story after another....
A friend whose daughter is having financial and marital problems, a friend with a young husband struggling to recover from a massive heart attack and figure it out somehow, financially. Then into church tonight where a woman literally cried about her grown children and the major destructive problems they are facing this week....once a mom, always a mom. And then, this morning, as I clicked onto my Yahoo main page, I read that 53,000 Citicorp workers are going to lose their jobs....It brought to mind this.....
It was appropriate for today...
Sometimes you hear something and you just can't shake it...That is what's happened this week with this letter that Scott shared with me earlier in the week, from his Max Lucado Devotional Bible. The words echo and nudge me to look at it even more closely.
St. Cyprian wrote this letter to his friend Donatus sometime in the third century.
"This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see....
brigands on the land, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please the applauding crowds, under all roofs misery and selfishness.
It really is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world.
YET, in the midst of it, I have found a quiet place and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians....and I am one of them."
(Gordon MacDonald, Forging a Real Faith)
As I sat at the keyboard, I wondered...what would this letter look like if I wrote it,
TODAY...
"It seems a cheerful world, when I view it from the warmth of my sunroom where I type to you looking into a forest, where the leaves dance in splendor, under the canopy of autumn trees.
But, if I climbed the nearest mountain (which around here is really a large hill) and looked out over the wide land, you know very well what I would see.....
Financial distress, foreclosures, fires consuming lives and homes, friends sad and fearful over the holidays, parents weeping for their children and the choices they make,and another grieving the loss of a child who left too soon, another newly~wed spending his Christmas away from his bride defending our freedoms in Iraq. There are disgraceful politicians, entertainment that is horrific and murderous, discouraging news from Wall Street, under all roofs misery and selfishness.
It really is a bad world, an incredibly bad world.
YET in the midst of it, I have found a quiet place, and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They have overcome the world. These people, ladies, are Christians...and I am one of them."
~lori
It seems to me that we have always lived in an incredibly bad world...and as I sit here in my comfortable house, there are days where I only have to climb the stairs of my own home and look over the banister to see the challenges, let alone a mountain...but truth Cyprian spoke...
we have something different... we have the peace that transcends all understanding. WE ARE CHRISTIANS...
we have something different... we have the peace that transcends all understanding. WE ARE CHRISTIANS...
wow!
so what do we do with that...I think we boldly climb that mountain and "LOOK" out over that "wide land" and see....
then we must heed the words of
Luke 12:48
then we must heed the words of
Luke 12:48
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more."
for we have the HOPE that can change the world,
we have the PEACE that can not be explained,
we have the LIGHT that must shine for all,
we have the LOVE of Christ in our hearts.
We are the Christians who MUST choose to make a difference.
There are those around us who simply cannot climb the mountain, who cannot see the hope, let alone the peace and that is where we come in. We offer hands and hearts to those who are in need. We offer love and prayer, for we KNOW that that is what is required of us. We are the Cyprian's of our day, we sit out and look at the troubled land before us and remain peaceful...We have discovered the joy and the peace, and now we MUST pass it on to a very hurting world.
There is nothing profound here. It's all in practical application. It's comforting the hurting and hugging the grieving. It's in extending a hand to the one who wishes with all they are that they did not have to have a hand extended.
WE ARE THE BODY of CHRIST and just as in Cyprian's day, from a far, sitting on the moon, the earth looks like a very peaceful place, but we my friends know differently...
It is up to us to make some sort of difference, if we are what we say we are.
we have the PEACE that can not be explained,
we have the LIGHT that must shine for all,
we have the LOVE of Christ in our hearts.
We are the Christians who MUST choose to make a difference.
There are those around us who simply cannot climb the mountain, who cannot see the hope, let alone the peace and that is where we come in. We offer hands and hearts to those who are in need. We offer love and prayer, for we KNOW that that is what is required of us. We are the Cyprian's of our day, we sit out and look at the troubled land before us and remain peaceful...We have discovered the joy and the peace, and now we MUST pass it on to a very hurting world.
There is nothing profound here. It's all in practical application. It's comforting the hurting and hugging the grieving. It's in extending a hand to the one who wishes with all they are that they did not have to have a hand extended.
WE ARE THE BODY of CHRIST and just as in Cyprian's day, from a far, sitting on the moon, the earth looks like a very peaceful place, but we my friends know differently...
It is up to us to make some sort of difference, if we are what we say we are.
16 People Shared:
I cant tell you how much I loved this post. Those old letters said so much, didnt they?
I dont even want to think about what is over the hills. This world is just terrible. All I can do is create peace within this cold fall day. Thankyou so much for this post!
The hope, the peace, the light, the love - we do have Christ! Praise God! Awesome devo, Lori!
What a beautiful post, Lori! I am so touched by this...it is what has been tugging at my heart strings. DH and I have had many discussions the last few days about how we can go about making a real difference in the lives of those around us.
Thank you for sharing!
Lori, This is where I have been on and off as well the past month or so. God graciously put two things in my hands to help me, much the same way he did for you through your husband. ONe of them was a book by Fenelon called "Let Go." Amazing. The other was a new Chris Tomlin CD. It has this song on it, which has provided me with so much comfort and passion, that I can hardly contain it. I plan to post on it soon when I get time to put it adequately into words as you have done. Anyway, here's the link. I know you will be blessed by it, if you haven't heard it already:
God of This City
This is ~ for lack of more descriptive language ~ an incredible post, Lori. And that doesn't even begin to describe it. What an awesome hope and assurance we have.
Late last night my husband and I had a conversation about the state of world affairs and Christ's Second Coming -- the "global" economy -- the US basically giving up is sovereign nation status this weekend at G-20 summit -- Nation of Israel -- Iran with long range nuclear capability --- goes on and on and on and on (and get DH going and ya gotta just set the BUN Coffee Maker on auto pilot for new pot every 20 minutes -- know what I mean!??)
...We just wanted to disconnect the power to our televisions and live out our lives in our quiet place among the holy people we know.
Bottom line: as ministry family, we were PITifUL! In the throws of despair and depression for the season of last night.
Then Monday rolls around - responsibility and children to love and care for and teach and (of Course! ) FoxNews on came on as scheduled during breakfast.
LIFE GOES ON......
Then some VERY encouraging news in an e-mail. An aswer to prayer -- a prayer of many months! AND THIS e-mail: our confirmation that WE ARE CHRISTIANS and WE ARE CALLED to ministry and (TA.DA.) Much has been given us -- specifically DH in gift of preaching/teaching. We CANNOT HIDE. Good Grief.
e-mail this a.m. affirms that our little ministry family does have HOPE that people need to see and hear. We have the PEACE that we need to make sure others can find in the coming days. . . . and on and on and on.
Sometimes you just come across another bloggers post and wish ya'd written it yourself because it speaks so LOUD to your own LIFE.
OK - that's it -- ya can delete this if it's too long. (Probably make no sense to any reader) :-P
...nothin' to laugh out loud at - Just PRAISE him for MONDay Morning sensibility!
~ esthermay
Oh Lori..
This is just incredible, and if you don't mind I may direct others to this post?
What a timely word, and hey, what a GREAT QUOTE.
I could not help but this of this verse in Matt. 5:14
“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Keep shinning for Jesus my sweet friend♥
Amen a thousand times over!!! I love the quote. In a strange way I almost look forward to these obviously hard times, not that I get pleasure out of seeing the suffering, but because it gives more attention to the light of Christ in me. The lights of heaven are not so noticibly looked to, except when it's dark!
Keep shinin' sister!
Sheila
Amazingly awesome post my friend.
I have been feeling the same way, Lori! Looking around, grieving for what I see. Choices people are making because they aren't looking to God. Last night I was sharing this with my little group of college girls and started to cry....couldn't even finish my lesson. We read the psalms and talked about where are hope and safety really is found!
We so need to cling, don't we! To have this perspective! We live in a sinful sinful world, and we must choose to not be a part of it!
Excellent post today. I need to refocus and have this perspective!
I came back over to read this today, and got something new from it. The first time I read it, I was feeling pretty at peace, and I grabbed onto this:
"we have the HOPE that can change the world,
we have the PEACE that can not be explained,
we have the LIGHT that must shine for all,
we have the LOVE of Christ in our hearts.
We are the Christians who MUST choose to make a difference."
Today, not feelin' so great. Have a hundred million things to do, and most of the people I know around me are struggling and in need, and my heart is breaking. God directed me back over here. This time, he penned these words of yours on my mind:
"It seems to me that we have always lived in an incredibly bad world...and as I sit here in my comfortable house, there are days where I only have to climb the stairs of my own home and look over the banister to see the challenges, let alone a mountain...but truth Cyprian spoke...
we have something different... we have the peace that transcends all understanding. WE ARE CHRISTIANS..."
wow!
I'd say God was truly up to something with this post. His anointed words through your keyboard have made a huge difference in me. Thank you again.
takes me right back to the core...my brooke said yesterday, "mom, God made all the things. and boy, did He do a good job". didn't He?!
I like how you wrote,"just as in Cyprian's day, from a far, sitting on the moon, the earth looks like a very peaceful place, but we my friends know differently...
It is up to us to make some sort of difference, if we are what we say we are."
Being a Christian is an active existence and not a passive one and one has to be willing to be fearless to be able to live for His word.
Fantastic post.
This is such a wonderful post, as those before me have commented. As Christians we need to share our hope now more than ever.
thank you, thank you for this timely, full of wisdom and truth post. our world needs Christ so much!
i came over here to peek at your WFW, but was drawn in to read this post and i'm so glad i did. you have encouraged me in my walk today and to shed the light in the world i walk in today.
blessings on you!
gail
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