Words of comfort through a bit of craziness

“Welcome to wherever you are. You’ve got to believe, right here, right now you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. Welcome to wherever you are. Everyone’s a miracle in their own way. When it seems you’re lost, alone, and feelin’ down, remember, everybody’s different, just take a look around…When you wanna give up and your heart’s about to break, remember…God makes no mistakes.” -“Welcome to Wherever You Are,” Have a Nice Day, Bon Jovi.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test an dapprove what God’s will is-his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire…May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through…The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, 19, 23, 24.

“All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and
death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.”
-“Journey of the Magi”, TS Eliot

The fact is that there are always Christian people who are in difficulties for various reasons, and you cannot read the New Testament Epistles without seeing the truth of what I am saying. If simply to believe and to accept salvation is everything, then these New Testament Epistels would never have been needed, indeed, in a sense, you would not need the Church at all. People would just be saved and go on happily for the rest of their lives as Christians…yet it was necessary for the Apostles Paul and Peter and John and others to write letters to them because they were in trouble in one way or another. They were unhappy for various reasons, they were not enjoying their Christian life. Some were tempted to look back to the life out of which they had been saved; others were tempted severely, others persecuted cruelly. Thus, the very existence of the New Testament Epistels shows us that unhappiness is a condition which does afflict Christian people…For from the moment we become Christians we become the special objects of the attention of the devil. As he beseiged and attacked our Lord, so does he beseige and attack all the Lord’s people. It is because we belong to him that the devil will do his utmost to disturb and upset us. He cannot rob us of our salvation but he can make us miserable…O let us remembe that it is sin to doubt God’s word, it is sin to allow the past, which God has dealt with, to rob us of our joy and our usefulness in the present and in the future. Rejoice in this wondrous grace and mercy that has blotted out your since and made you a child of God. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”
-Spiritual Depression: It’s Causes and Cure, Lloyd-Jones, Chapter 5

“No man makes a greater mistake than he who does nothing because he knows it is not everything.” Edmund Burke

“Drudgery is the touchstone of character.” Oswald Chambers

“I’m lookin’ forward to lookin’ back on this day. I prayed last night, dear God, please, No. But I was never good at letting go; but I’m lookin’ forward to lookin’ back on this day. Good news can be so unkind when its everything you have to leave behind. I’m lookin’ forward to lookin’ back on this day…
-“Lookin’ Forward,” Over the Rhine, Drunkard’s Prayer

God’s inexplicable peace and the excitement of discovering his plan for my life has kept me from the depths of frustration and despair when I want to quit everything, curl in a ball, and sleep for days. Can’t wait to see some of your precious faces at home for a few days!!!