Author: E H Williams

Who remembers being grounded? Serving time in the room for something you feel destined to repeat. Seeing that correspondence carry out to adulthood can spell disaster. As adults, time away means time lost, in our vocations, relationships. after all, we don’t know when our last day will come, or when God will come back, assuming we’re not talking about sabbatical.this time lost can lead to setbacks psychologically, or at worst, road blocks without seeming detours. life is full time, part time being too demanding with the stops and starts.

But what about being or getting in over your head? Can a drowning man swim his way out? His mercies are new every morning, but when apathy starts to return to life, will we care? one might ask as did David Bryrne, “well, how did we get here?” Have your retraced your steps to the last place you remember having it somewhat put together?

We must be vigilant, but there are certainly times when this idea doesn’t pay the bills. So…take it one day at a time. baby steps. Sing praise to your Creator, “in the middle of your enemies”. Resolve to faithfulness in handing the battle back to who it belongs to,
God. Perhaps, be vigilant in the little things, remembering we will not, we can not be trusted with larger things without first being faithful to baby steps.

If you don’t know the story of Jim Elliot, he was a romantic Christ follower who developed a dream to reach out to the unreached with the Gospel. In her book Through Gates of Splendour, his wife Elizabeth recorded his martyrdom at the hands of the Auca Indians he finally visited. Their story is also depicted in the recent movie, The End of the Spear. Basically, there was a vision, to reach this primitive tribe off the coast of Ecuador. A team assembled, provisions used to coax the natives, and finally the team landed on their beach, only to be “gunned” down with arrows.

So I was sitting in the dentist chair, awaiting yet another crown, when I decided 45 min is too long without reading material so I grabbed a mag from the waiting room. The mag was Outsider, and one article struck me from first glance. I’m leaving out names simply for my own laziness, but it was one guy from Thailand who developed a dream and a plan to do the same sort of mission, to an island tribe off the coast who was totally untouched by modern society.

So his plan culminated in paying off local fisherman to drop him on the beach where the tribe frequented. There he would present useful goods to try to coax conversation. I’m assuming he had studied the language. Well, striking to me, same fate…murdered upon setting foot on the island!

They say history has a way of repeating itself. Well in Scripture, typology is the thing – lots of imagery or symbols pointing to the Christ, the Messiah. This is not the same thing as history repeating itself, nor was the man from Thailand a modern day Jim Elliot. All I’m saying is I read Through Gates of Splendour while on a mission trip IN Ecuador, and when I saw this article I nearly fell out of my chair.

if your boredom and spare time continue, check out my more “well rounded” blog at obviousgrasp.wordpress.com. The title is A Risky Mess

Suffering: for good or bad..Which is worse?

(Not referring to which is better, but to which is for lack of a better word, more challenging.)

Suffering consequences from wrong actions…

Or suffering the torture and entrapment of doing right?

Better to suffer for good than bad I know, but there is a certain sense, this side of hell at least in which suffering for good is just too extremely intense to bear.

Saints need perseverance, to endure to the end, but we also are called to be perfect which who can grasp?  When I am not perfect, temptation starts to loom, thus it becomes more challenging to turn back to right.  One wrong decision can cause a cascade leading to more suffering consequences and re-sowing instead of reaping.

I think maybe the one advantage suffering for good has is to avoid the Groundhog Day effect that comes with consequences, i.e., you keep repeating the same vicious cycle of apologies, patronizing, disappointment from others, others having an idea what you’ve been up to.  Ok, so that’s more than one advantage.

But my reason for writing is not to state the obvious but to make a case for suffering for wrong.  Solely because as David knew, suffering for right leads to persecution from outsiders incl. friends, or in Job’s case, from God.  He’s always testing our hearts for some reason.

I suppose with the subject of suffering, it’s like a long process of learning to walk.  Like…half a step..crash…another quarter step…fall…two steps forward…roll back down the hill and so forth.

I have recently had the “privilege” of being let go from my church for 1 year at least.  I plan on moving on but anyway…

I was pretty miffed once I got the phone call from the police officer who officiates our Sunday services.  Not just miffed, but suspicious.

He told me it was the church’s prerogative to ban someone for any length of time due to it being a private institution.  But I later come to find out that the folks that complained about me complained to him, not to our pastor.  Furthermore I was informed by another source that he handled the decision on his own.  So I’m thinking separation of church and state?  First amendment freedom to worship in church of your choice?

After talking to the pastor, it was ultimately the church’s decision to comply with law enforcement’s decision but still their hand was forced.  

The nature of the complaints remain unknown to me.  But besides being kicked out of a place where I’m being fed and worshipping, the whole thing just looks a bit fishy.

Trust in God for King David was depending on God to rescue him from his adversaries.

Trust in God for Job was trying to reckon with and endure through what in the world God had done to him (for him?).

I’m sure many of us have experienced at least the felt blessings that come from being persecuted for righteousness.  But then there are those times when we feel just flat out persecuted.  Not knowing why or to what extent obviously conjures up the notion of trust.  

And our memories are only so good.  Praise God for his Holy Spirit bringing things to mind at the right times.  But I’m sure we’d all like a treasure chest of our experience knowledge to start with.

The first step is the hardest, said Indiana Jones stepping out onto the invisible bridge.  Here, trust doesn’t seem based on God’s goodness landmarks in our lives, so much as on His character we see in our relationship with Him.

Discernment, says the Bible, is obtained by constant practice.  That’s how you know God’s good and perfect will.  And that is where the relationship comes as well.  One day at a time, sweet Jesus. 

Trust in God doesn’t depend on what He does for us so much as what He doesn’t do for us, or at least doesn’t appear to do for us.

“Though He slay me yet will I serve Him” – Job

Saying He is faithful in more often than not a statement of belief rather than saying ‘look what He has done’.  Sure.  we say it when God shows up, but the goal is to say It when we’re confused, disillusioned, feeling abandoned.

Maybe it’s because this is what trains our wills, to asccept His righteousness via our taking Him at His word, regardless of the circumstances.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

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