Words(?) of "Wisdom" from Anonymous

This entry is just for pure fun. And amazement.

I have a frequent commenter on my blog. “Anonymous” visits almost daily, and has the most profound things to say. I thought someone else might enjoy (or help decipher) some of the great wisdom Anonymous has to offer. Here’s a collection of some of the more recent nuggets of philosophy and literary artistry Anonymous has left for me here:

Must you are some of the most basic aspects of cash flow management?
No wonder why t-shirts are visible for the duration product launch
so other events.

Must I am, that’s a most basic aspect for sure. No wonder.
Wait… what?

I do accept as true with all the concepts you have introduced on your post.
They're very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too brief for starters. May you please prolong them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.

(Emma thinks THIS ONE is the funniest one, and I certainly see why. MY POSTS are “too brief for starters”? Obviously, this person was on the WRONG BLOG!)

Trinium's trucking software.can grip both large but also small trucking business owners.

(Look out, all you trucking business owners! They’re coming to grip you!)

Getting these solar panels may indeed be expensive just enough.

(Wow—those are really nice solar panels, but they aren’t quite expensive enough for me.)

This has this eroding effect by concrete over the time.
Plastic, wax and fat are often would keep things take moisture out.

(Speechless.)

I loved as much as you'll receive carried out right here. The sketch is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an shakiness over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this increase.

(I’m not 100% sure, but I think this was one of Shakespeare’s earlier works. Try reading it with a  British accent. You’ll see what I mean.)

Call us at an attorney using Houston today meaning you can. This is how these cases have always been handled, nine times out of 6.

(I promise you, I did NOT make this up! I certainly hope the attorney is better at law than at math! Is “nine times out of 6” like saying “150%!”?)

This just in: (5/15/13)

A lot of the diseases that are today have first been caused by the whole wrong eating practices. Keep the jar filled with beer, up to all about an inch from the top.
 
Finally! One that makes some sense!

Surprised To Be Loved

But me he caught—reached all the way
from sky to sea; he pulled me out
Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,
the void in which I was drowning.
They hit me when I was down,
but God stuck by me.
He stood me up on a wide-open field;
I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!

From The Message

Think on These Things

No one's life is free from challenges. Whether because of testing, to prove to you that your faith is genuine so that you will not doubt your salvation, or tempting, when the evil one wants to shake that faith and make you think God cannot possibly keep his promises to you, life has challenges.

Our battle is in the spiritual realm. It's going on all the time. But we are not left as orphans. We have tools to use to strengthen our minds when facing challenges, when under attack, when discouraged, when left to work alone though perhaps we (as I) do much better in small community. We are charged to speak encouragement to one another. We are charged to capture our own thoughts ourselves.

Today's one of those days when things are clicking along well, just like they should. The big challenges are kind of on hold at present, and I almost know the serenity prayer by heart, and can summarize at least the overarching gist of it as it applies at this very moment with Atticus Finch's words, "It's not time to worry yet, Scout." But for some reason, my body and brain chemistry just won't cooperate. That caffeine-addicted chihuahua that lives under my ribcage is doing his flips and the irrational anxiety that met me with the alarm clock is fully active today.

So what is in my power to do in this case? I don't want to opt for the afternoon glass of wine that probably would put H.Anx (the chihuahua's nickname) to bed for awhile. (Though I am not by any means a tee-totaler, I am very cautious about using alcohol for medication purposes, lest dependency gradually develop.) So I told two friends: anxious day. Please pray for peace. And I trust them that they did indeed pray for me. Both are the kind of people who know me well enough to accept my request for prayer without requiring details, and both are mature enough believers to entrust me to God rather than choose first to try to fix things for me instead of surrendering me to our mutual Father, which is what I always need most.

And second, I have chosen to take the words of Paul to the Philippians, and think on these things:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. --Philippians 4:8

I've often read this verse and it's left me kind of blank. I don't readily bring to mind true, honorable, lovely things, at least not things that really work to CHANGE me. What's true? 2 + 2 = 4, now, always, forever. So what?

What's honorable? A firefighter entering a building to save a person he or she is not related to. Good stuff, but it doesn't help me right now. What's lovely? The gerberas blooming in the front yard finally. Thank you for beauty, God, but H.Anx isn't responding to that.

So today, I want to take each one of those suggestions, and specifically name something to think on that is relevant to this challenge. I want this favorite-verse-of-many to take root so that it affects change in the way Paul was thinking when he wrote it, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for all our individual and common good.

Whatever is

True:  The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. -- 1 Timothy 1: 14
Grace, unmerited favor, overflowed abundantly for me. I didn't do it. I didn't earn it, therefore I cannot lose it. Because of who God is and what He has done by his own great love and mercy, I am secure forever in his grasp and nothing can separate me. This is true, as the next verse affirms: This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Honorable: This is a humbling one as well. The dictionary says "honor" is integrity. It refers to something worthy of being held in esteem. A biblical translation can be "above reproach." Were it not for God's promises, none could claim to be honorable or above reproach, and seeking to think on such a thing would only condemn. But for this:
You, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. -- Colossians 1:21-23

Who can claim to be above reproach, and therefore honorable? All that is honorable is made so by the work we could not do. And to maintain that state, God makes it just about as easy as it can be: Believe the gospel and confess honestly to him my sin and shortcomings. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. -- 1 John 1:9. He is faithful to make us honorable. He bestows honor to the dishonorable who confess honestly to him, and trust by faith in his righteousness alone, and not in a checklist of rules to keep for salvation or honor. (Romans 10: 5-11.)

Just: The enemy of peace has a powerful tool on his side where justice is concerned. The God who by no means will clear the guilty is to be feared. And yet, he who does not clear the guilty calls himself first by the name of MERCY and takes upon himself the due punishment on my behalf. The penalty must be paid, and so it is. Justice is satisfied once for all who believe.

The Rock, his work is perfect,for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. -- Deuteronomy 32:4 

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation." -- Exodus 34: 4-7

But he was wounded for our transgressions;he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. -- Isaiah 53:5

Pure: With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you deal purely, says 2 Samuel 22: 26-27. Note it is not with the pure God deals purely, but "with the purified." How does this process of purification occur? Is it within my grasp? Not on my own, no, but access has been given. Peter reveals it: Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God and this word endures forever. -- 1 Peter 1: 22-23 and 25.

Purity that endures forever, for who can call unclean that which God himself has made clean? Oh, quiet your accusations, evil one! You cannot take from me that which has been done for me.

Lovely: 2 Samuel 1:23 tells us that the friendship of David and Jonathan, who should have been divided as enemies but were united by faith in God's perfect plan, is lovely. God brings together that which, in the world, is impossible. Most impossible is the union he brings between people, his enemies, hopeless and dead on their own, with his own perfect self. Esther, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon assert that womanhood is lovely. God's design for me, regardless of the world's standards that I can never, never achieve, is lovely in his eyes. He regards my form as lovely. My Maker is satisfied with me. So lovely is womanhood to him that he uses both explicitly feminine terms and the word "lovely" to refer with pleasure to Jerusalem, the dwelling place of his cumulative beloved, in its glory. To be as lovely as Jerusalem, his completed Bride, is indeed a thought worth savoring. Song of Solomon 6: 4.

Commendable: Ecclesiastes commends to us "joy." Yes, our challenges are great and the days are wearisome. Today turns to tomorrow and there may seem to be a purposeless repetition of the mundane. But that is the facade, not the truth. There is a Redeemer, there is a Balm in Gilead, there is an all-mighty One who works all things, even the small and repetitious and mundane and even the evil things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. -- Romans 8:28. We are not left to the endless cycle of seasons that the pagans worshiped. We who know that Redeemer are to rejoice in all things. To do so is commendable. Commend joy to one another! Likewise, commend one another as you see the Fruit of the Spirit in each other. Paul commends his friend Phoebe to the Roman church, calling her a servant (Romans 16:1); he commends even the quarrelsome Corinthians because of their faithfulness to lift him up and their attempts to follow his examples (1 Corinthians 11: 2); commend one another when you face hardships with endurance (2 Corinthians 6: 4) because it truly is God who wills and works within you! We can have confidence and joy in commendation, as we are commended to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give to you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. -- Acts 20: 32. Take joy!

Excellent: 1 Corinthians 13 tells us the more excellent way. Love.
Paul has just been talking about the various gifts of the Church, and how they might be used for the whole community's good. He has cautioned against looking down on one person's gift as well as looking down on oneself for not possessing a "high" gift. He simply removes from us any right to feel superior or inferior (and I admit to both, at the same time). But regardless of the distribution of good spiritual gifts, every single one in the whole community can give this even more excellent thing to each other: Love. Optimism for each other. Humility. Kindness. Patience. Concern. Compassion.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. -- 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7.


Worthy of Praise:
I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,and I am saved from my enemies. -- 2 Samuel 22: 4
What other name in heaven or on Earth can I call upon? None other is trustworthy. And to him I have access. I call, and he hears.
For through him [Christ] we have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. -- Ephesians 2: 18-19.

These things. I am claiming them today to overcome the physiological, mental, emotional, and spiritual enemies that act to rob me of my peace.

So take that, H.Anx. Down, boy!

Jane Esther Cochrane, 12 Years of Blessings

 

This week kicks off birthday season for us. We get to have a birthday just about every two weeks until the beginning of July. So it's party central, and that means it's time to stop and reflect a little on these beautiful, beloved, still relatively new people God has blessed us with the privilege of nurturing and guiding and watching grow and learn and give and lose and hurt and glory for a few years.

Jane gets to start the season off by turning 12. The Angel Child is a full-fledged tweenager now. She is wrapping up her first year of middle school, and ending strong. It's been a good year for her, as far as academics are concerned. She's learned some lessons about perseverance through her great improvement in Cross Country in the fall. She's learned about self-discipline in managing a dramatic increase in homework and expectations from homeschool to fifth grade at school to (cue music of Doom) Middle School! She's made new friends, been invited to other homes for parties, bonfires, sleepovers, and mission projects. She's felt the glory of being awarded high honors at two levels of Science Fair, and felt the sting of disappointment and injustice at being dismissed without serious consideration when taking the same Science Fair project to the state level. She's also learned that she can lose something she thought her heart was set on, and yet at the same time rejoice with another who achieved it apart from her. She has learned to say, "Look how God is blessing you!" when she might be tempted to feel passed over instead, and to give thanks for it.

Life has its challenges for Jane. She has to work hard. She has health issues that are foreign to most of her friends. She has a keen sense of justice in a world where injustice more often seems to rule, and the apparent victories of sin cut her deeply and offend that sense of justice in her. Justice for her even trumps mercy and grace at times, to a parent's frustration and concern. But then, just when I think I have reason to worry, she blooms in amazing loving affection, concern, and deep-reaching-into-her-sacrificial-soul grace to pour out good unexpectedly on another sometimes undeserving soul with absolutely no expectation of receiving anything in return.

I know God's got her. She hears his voice. She is learning to walk in humility and let him be her God. I see the fruit in her, his little lamb, maturing.

Happy birthday, Jane Esther Cochrane. You live up to your name. You truly are God's gracious gift and a shining star, and you are greatly loved.

  

You've come a long way, baby.
Jane at one year old, 2002.

Hard Heart

Our Sunday school class discussion today pretty much preached the sermon that we heard afterward.
We've been looking at the most difficult book in the Bible: Romans 9. Election and free will. Sovereignty and personal responsibility. God's purposes, his holiness, his inconceivable mercy. It's rich, difficult stuff.

Today a lot of the discussion and preaching was about hardened hearts, being dead in sin and helpless, whether we harden our hearts or God hardens them. Whether we cry out to him from our position as the dead, or he lifts us out and resuscitates. Whether passing over a rebel is the same thing as causing that person to rebel in the first place. Whether one can really blame God for giving a rebel the desire of his heart--to resist his creator--while choosing out of mercy to give another rebel something BETTER than the desire of his hard heart, changing that desire to something outside himself.

It all reminded me of a poem I wrote years ago about my own conversion experience. Yes, I understand the hard heart. I understand what it is to WANT to be on a team other than the one God's leading. I understand also what it is to have my hard heart softened by something outside myself. It hurts and it's dangerous--having a softened heart. I'm pretty sure, yeah, I'm sure, I wouldn't have chosen it myself. It was given to me. And yet, I'm still thankful. Oh, so thankful.

I wasn't reading Romans when I wrote this poem. I was drawing from the Old Testment book of Ezekiel.
But scripture supports and interprets scripture, so it should come as no surprise that the two have some overlap in content and result.

Ezekiel Sonnet

Rebecca Cochrane

I build me up with purpose to defend

Against what stone my foot may fall upon

Or that which, hurled, may mark beyond the mend

My feeble self can manage on its own,

While in my midst itself is formed a stone

Where should be beating flesh and blood and bone.

My adamantine heart is ossified,

And I stand safe and strong within my pride—

Until the wind of word by breath finds chinks

And still small voice dissolves the citadel.

Exposed, unnerved, the rampart built so well—

Tumbled rubble, crusted ore—unlinks

And leaves me soft where once was bastion.

Pitted, peeled, I am inside out and all my armor gone.

Meeting My Younger Self at the Park

First one, and then a second, and then a third girl darted across the sidewalk, down the hill past the park bench, and into the playground. They ran exactly in order counter-consecutive to age. (Yes, I just made up that term. It means youngest to oldest.)

I was planning to go play with them, just taking my time a little bit on the way down. But as I passed her, she spoke to me. “Three girls, huh?”

She looked just a little bit like me, but taller, lighter hair (strawberry blonde), probably ten years younger. She was nursing a tiny but plump red-headed infant. She looked tired.

I looked back at the playground, and then at her. Something told me the kids would be OK if I didn’t join them on the slide this time. I sat down next to her. “Four, actually,” I said. “One is with a friend tonight.”

“FOUR? All girls?” (I get this a lot.) “Wow,” she said thoughtfully, slowly. And then it all came out. “Is it hard? I mean, motherhood? Is it hard to be a mom? I think it’s hard, is it?”

I didn’t hesitate too long, while I watched those three beautiful creatures laughing, leaping, owning that playground with pure delight. My heart almost breaks with love when I actually take the effort to see them. But is it hard, being a mom? I cast quickly back to just the events of the last 24 hours. Joy and sorrow mingled. Repercussions of choices impacting their lives. Very tough decisions ahead. Tears and also moments of sheer delight. I looked her directly in the eye.

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, it is hard. Don’t ever doubt it.”

She looked relieved even as she said, “I’m really scared. I don’t know what I’m doing.” The baby was three months old, and down near the sandpit, her three year old was playing near another toddler. “Nothing’s right. I say no all the time. I’m afraid I’m doing it all wrong.”

She switched the baby to the other breast, then whispered gently, “Oh, the sun’s in your eyes, isn’t it?” She moved the blanket. “Now are you going to go to sleep on me? Won’t you eat?” The baby’s arm fell outward, straight at the elbow, away from her body. Clearly the pose of that instant infant sleep fully set in already. I looked at the absolute security of that infant in her arms. Satisfied. Comforted. Safe.

“You’re not doing it wrong,” I said gently. And then my own friend’s advice came back to me. “I never thought I could do anything right either. I second-guessed myself all the time. There are so many opinions out there, and each one is so strong. If you can, learn to recognize which ones encourage you. Listen to those voices. And the ones that make you fear, criticize you, lack compassion, those are the voices of despair. Filter them out.”

She repeated the word. “Despair, yes. That’s what it feels like. There’s so much at stake.”

“There is,” I agreed. “But it’s OK. You’re loving them. Love covers over so much. Love them, and it will be OK.” I told her then how I tried so hard to be strict in the early years, following that “parent not friend” model, and the “be consistent” model, and the “because I said so” model. But all the while, I confessed, I was craving the day when I could let them begin making their own decisions. Trusting them to choose wisely. Not having to say no all the time. By age five, all were moving in that direction. We’re there now.

“If it’s not unsafe and it’s not immoral, I try to say ‘yes’ whenever I can,” I said. “But don’t just say, ‘oh, OK, I guess so.’ When you can say ‘yes,’ really make the most of your ‘YES!’ Tell her it’s a good idea. Tell her you can really get behind her on that one. Make it enthusiastic so that when you do have to say ‘no,’ she’ll remember that not every answer is no. She’ll remember the past ‘yes’ and look forward to the next. She’ll know you’re not just grudgingly giving in, but truly affirming her, being ‘for her’ in her choices.”

“YES! I can do that,” she said, smiling for the first time.

I wanted to offer to hold the baby while she wiggled into the front pack carrier with only one arm, but it seemed too soon. I wanted to hug her and tell her she was really, really on the right track. It wasn’t the right time for that either. So I told her my name. She shook my hand firmly and told me hers. “I hope I see you again here this summer some time,” she said. And I do too.

Then she went her way and I went mine, little girls dancing all around us.

Yes.

Voices of Despair

I have a beloved friend who, for several years now, has kept reminding me that I should not listen to the voices of despair which discourage me, take the wind out of my sails, speak without trying to understand intentions, limit, squelch, squash, overpower, doubt, and so on. I am so very susceptible to those powerful voices, and they have dealt me many crushing blows over the years or directed me away from actual Truth for a time, thin-skinned people-pleaser that I am.


I have another beloved friend who doesn't live near me now and so doesn't know the specifics of my life's challenges like she once did, but she still speaks truth when she has the chance, to help drown out or identify those voices of despair for others. She knows how powerful they can be. She posts things on Facebook to encourage. Here's an example of the kind of content she often shares:

God’s Voice	Satan’s Voice
Stills You	Rushes You
Leads You	Pushes You
Reassures You	Frightens You
Enlightens You	Confuses You
Encourages You	Discourages You
Comforts You	Worries You
Calms You	Obsesses You
Convicts You	Condemns You

Today, I think maybe, if I can keep remembering this, those voices got an identification which takes away a lot of the power.

There's an oft-misused, taken out of context Bible verse that keeps getting bounced around when people feel the need to warn other believers against really living their faith in the power of God. It's probably second only to the mistranslated, taken out of context, and misapplied colloquialism of American Christian culture that's generally spoken as "Avoid the appearance of evil" in its misuse and potential damage (that one is one of this blog's Top 10 most-read entries; revealing the error in the usage of it generated in another fatigued and over-burdened Christian friend a robust and joy-filled response: "You've broken through the very foundation of Christian Fake-itude!"). The verse that's the topic of this blog post is: Your adversary prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

This is typically used as if it is a warning that your foot might slip and you might fall into some sin you could have avoided if only you'd been more cautious--built your fences higher, avoided interacting with people, kept your happy mask on. It's usually used when your action or lifestyle or personality is making someone else uncomfortable. And it's a misuse of that verse to use it as such.

The verse is from 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter is one of those favorite books for me. It is so full and rich that I've underlined almost the whole thing in my Bible. And yet as many times as I've read through it, cried over it, prayed along with it and quoted it to encourage others who were struggling in their trials, I never before this morning saw what that verse really means. I've always heard it used that way above: Be careful or you'll accidentally slip into sin. I've heard it so many times that even though it seemed so oddly out of place (if that was what it meant) in the book of 1 Peter, I didn't know what to do with that until now.

I realized this morning that that verse really isn't just randomly placed there in the passage, like some schizophrenic non sequitur. Let's take a look at this book: Peter is talking to the believers who have been scattered. They are living among unbelievers. They are largely Jews but there are Gentile believers in the mix now too because the church is growing, the gospel spreading. Peter personally knows so well how essential it is--God spoke it to him directly as a rebuke--that the church be inclusive in loving all believers, all who have been made clean by the Holy Spirit. Exclusion and division are simply NOT of God's plan for those whom he has made clean. Peter makes sure we hear from the start of the letter that we who abide in the Word have been purified and cannot lose that purification, THEREFORE, love one another sincerely from the heart with a deep brotherly affection.

He goes on to acknowledge all the hardships there are that would keep us from living that faith. Wives are being abused by husbands. Slaves are being mistreated by masters, rulers are of questionable intent (and Nero is coming). We're going to be tempted to return evil for evil. We're going to be tempted to shrink away and not call attention to our faith, to hide our fellowship with other believers. But it is supernatural power in us that lets us respond to evil with kindness, and to keep doing good for one another, to keep BEING the church to one another (remember Peter heard Jesus pray to God in front of the disciples that the world would be changed only by seeing God in THEM and in US--the supernatural unity of believers is how unbelievers know that God is in us and how they are challenged to know him too--John 17; Want to reduce persecution? Violence against other people? Be the visible church MORE, not less. They will know you by your love.). It is supernatural power, the power they first believed in, the power that raises the dead and purifies human hearts, that enables them to act with love to one another despite their fear and to act with respect to those who harm them. This setup of the supernatural nature of God's involvement in their lives is essential to the letter. It's essential to the Christian faith.

Peter then addresses suffering and persecution. Jesus suffered. We will too. But God will call to account those who persecute. The end is near. Do not lose heart. But (4:7 and forward) be clear minded and self-controlled. Why? So that we don't accidentally sin? That's what we tend to assume. We assume that we must be clear minded and self-controlled so that we can keep controlling that dark heart of ours. Now that's not at all bad advice, and there are places in the Bible where, even after the indwelling of the Spirit, people are still sinning and it needs to be addressed and stopped. But that is not what he's talking about here in this letter. That's not even on his mind. We are to be clear minded and self-controlled so that we can pray. Stay close to God. This is absolutely essential too. Pray, be in communication with the one who is empowering you and doing this work in you. And now that you are clear minded and self-controlled and praying and close to God, what are we to do ABOVE ALL ELSE?

Above all else, Peter says, do this: "Love one another deeply, because love covers [not causes] a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality without grumbling." This is what we are to do Above All Else. Next he says Use your gifts. If your gift is speaking, then speak. If it is serving, then serve. Do it with ALL THE STRENGTH GOD PROVIDES. (i.e. Live it out loud!) As an exuberant, cheerleader type personality who is sometimes squelched by those who are made uneasy by enthusiasm, a passage like this brings me to life. It reminds me that my design is from my Creator, and he takes delight in seeing me live fully, abundantly, in relationship the way he designed me to be. Through this, God will be praised for the glory and the power for ever.

Now that he's called us to this kind of action, without any excuse for ceasing, Peter hits us again with the suffering part. It's as if he has to weave this together: Love one another deeply. You're going to suffer for it. But love one another anyway, above all else. Use your gifts even when you're being suppressed. But remember, you will suffer: Don't be surprised by the fiery trial. You knew there'd be a cost.

What's really noteworthy here is that it isn't for sin that they are suffering. It's because they're being the church, to one another and to the community. They're living it for real, and it's hard and it takes perseverance, but that's the Christian's calling. So then suffer, he says, and while suffering, continue to do good.

Up to this point, Peter has been talking to the laypeople but here he shifts to the elders: Elders, show them how! As shepherds, you are to be an example of all this--how to love and continue on in the midst of the persecution. Don't let your zeal for the brotherhood fizzle out. Don't let the smoldering wick be snuffed out (to borrow from another place in scripture). Elders are to model for the flock how to keep loving earnestly, deeply, using gifts for one another's good, in the midst of persecution, naysayers, social and political opposition, family and work struggles.

Then again, after calling the elders to lead by example, Peter speaks to all of us: Humble yourselves. What does this mean? Beat ourselves up with self pity? Grovel before God? No, it means don't try to do this on your own--it's not your strength, no matter how good you are or how high your fences are, but remember you are "under God's mighty hand." Don't worry. Don't fret. Don't freeze either. Cast your anxiety on him. Again he says to be self-controlled and alert. Again, is this so that we won't slip into some sin? Again that answer is No. Taking this verse out of context misses the real point, which is so much more important. We are to be self-controlled and alert so that we can see what the enemy is up to, and here it is: The prowling adversary, the roaring lion, is seeking someone to devour. What is the lion roaring about? These are the voices of despair! What is the goal? Not a one-time slip into sin, but the complete renunciation of our faith and our calling to live that faith in this world!

The adversary is trying to bring us down from the faith that empowers loving action in the face of hardship and in the power of God to love in all purity because we have been purified by God's Word and because we are under his mighty hand. The adversary is the persecutor, the againster, the doubter, the skeptic--all the loud voices trying to quench the Spirit in the active believer. The adversary is the voice of fear that says God doesn't really change hearts, doesn't make new creations, isn't powerful enough, isn't greater than our hearts (to borrow from John). The adversary roars when he creates doubts, and roars to devour when he communicates that it is up to you, and not your Savior, to keep you on the straight and narrow, to deliver you over at the end of your days to God's favor.

Resist him, Peter says, standing firm in the faith. The faith. Which faith? The faith that says this grace is the gift of God and not of ourselves. This faith that says nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Losing that faith, denying that strength, the "mighty hands" that have you: that's the devouring the adversary is after. Don't lose your faith because of the critical ones who don't want you to live it. This verse is about withstanding persecution. To reinforce that this is about persecution (and not just the possibility of sin you might encounter in your life if you walk too confidently in God), Peter reminds them of the brothers throughout the world who are undergoing the same thing. It is a known fact. Christians will be called to recant the power of God.

And this understanding is what brought me freedom this morning, from those powerful voices of discouragement and despair. The roaring lion is about persecution! It is the voice that says "Don't believe what you say you believe about God." But it is the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ (the risen conqueror!). After you have suffered a little while, he will restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. It's HIS power and not my own that enables me (or anyone else) to be the church.

And now I know. Voices of despair are the voices of the roaring lion, trying to limit and suppress and hold back the Holy Spirit because of this very fragile jar of clay. Naming the voices that claim this much wrongly applied verse, and seeing this verse here, written for me and my weakness as a people-pleaser more than a God-pleaser, has taken away a lot of the power that has so effectively crushed me over and over again. That in itself is a biblical principle: To name something is to take dominion over it.

I feel stronger and happier today than I remember in a long time. It is for freedom believers have been set free. Do not return again to the chains that once bound you. Don't throw off that saving faith and all it calls you to when the going gets rough. Never use your freedom as a license to sin, because it is the power of the one who cannot be defiled that dwells in you now. But use that freedom, knowing you are safe in your Father's mighty hands, to resist the evil one, reject his roaring lies, and live fully, confidently, and joyfully in loving relationship with the brothers and sisters in the faith--the gift of the Church which was established even before the indwelling of the Spirit, for the mutual building up of one another to persevere. Live! Imperishable. You cannot lose your standing of righteousness if you have claimed Christ. May the voices of despair drown themselves out. Let the lion starve. There's nothing to satisfy him here.



Oh, getting to a point of clarity and contentment in God's word always means another blow is right around the corner, but maybe this time I will recognize the roaring and face it down with the Power not of myself that is within me.