As a Christian, or someone who believes that God came down as the man Jesus and died for me and who tries to base my life solely on enjoying His grace and reflecting His love, I look to the bible for guidance, help and encouragement. If you don't see this Book that way, that's fine. I encourage you, though, to try it out--maybe read an entire book (like the book of John), instead of the passages that crazy people shout or cynics like to quote--and see what you think.
A few particular verses from the bible have been in my head and my heart lately and I wanted to share them with you. These are from the book of Psalms, which is basically a collection of Hebrew poems and songs. They cover pretty much every human emotion and can be very personal and brutally honest. The particular psalm or song these verses come from is Psalm 73, in which the writer talks about how he had been angry at God for a long time and doubtful about His presence. He looked at people around him who spat in God's face and seemed to be doing just fine, and questioned what the point was of trying to follow God. But then, he goes into the temple (the Jewish place to meet God) and is reminded of how glorious God is and why it's good to follow him. These verses come after that epiphany:
"When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever."
I've got the words of Psalm 73:23 tattooed on my wrist...so if you've ever seen that and wondered what it was about, this is it. "You hold me by my right hand." Man, I love this psalm. It would be too long of a post for me to fully explain why, so if you want to know just ask and we can hang out and drink non-coffee drinks and talk about it. But particularly what I've been thinking of lately is how often I go through this cycle in my own life. I get bitter at God and doubtful of His goodness or His reality a lot. And usually it's over petty stuff. I gripe about not having a car, or about how much money it would take to really launch this business the way that I'd like to. While at the same time, people are going through hell in places like Egypt or Sudan or even in my very own backyard. Then I get angry and assume that God doesn't care about those people either, which I believe to be false. (A whole other topic--again, let's get together.) That's pretty hypocritical of me, by the way, because usually I have a moment of anger and then go back to worrying about my lack of a car.
But then, I spend time reading the bible or just praying to Him and I get hit in the face with the reality of verse 23 (the second little stanza up there). I'm angry, I'm bitter, I'm basically spitting in God's face. "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand." Why is it that I need to be reminded of this twenty times a day? I think that's why I chose to have those words etched onto my body, so I can have a reminder more permanent than my emotions.
I think that my problems would be solved if I could get this or buy that, so I gripe and complain. "You hold me by my right hand; You lead me with Your counsel." I've found in my life time and time again that God's plan and God's timing tend to be a lot better than what I would have planned for myself.
I get angry and assume that God doesn't know or care about people in pain in the world. "You hold me by my right hand." What an intimate picture. When you are close enough to hold someone's hand, you are close enough to see (and feel) their pain and their suffering.
I've found the last verses to be true, too. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart. Man. I've just been sitting here for like five minutes without typing because all of the times where that's been true have been rushing into my head. I don't have the strength to get through this life on my own; God supplies that for me. I don't have the strength to love others; that's His grace.
This post wasn't as coherent as I set out for it to be, but hopefully it encouraged you like typing it out encouraged me. If you think all of this is a bunch of baloney, it's okay. We can still be friends. :) But sitting here in the joy of this, I would love for you to discover that it's not actually baloney, it's true life. Again...let's talk about it!
Back to photography, here's a little sneak peek of some posts that will be going up in the next week or two. You should be excited...that's all I'm gonna say.
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