Wings...

Celebration. Dancing. Pictures. Guests. Cake. Joy.

After many days of preparation (so many people did so much work!) and a few days rejoicing with family and new family, my little sister is married. She is a wife now, and I have a brother. A real brother. Finally, a big brother.



[Boaz] said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer." ~ruth3:9

my change jar

$17.83 in pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters
14 guitar picks
2 Canadian pennies
2 safety pins
1 paper clip
1 yellow 20 gauge shotgun shell
1 glass bead
1 button
1 set of keys
1 sliver of wood

Endurance

I bet the frozen pizza industry really understands America's hunger for instant gratification. All the food chains should, actually. We want instant results, instant gratification, now rather than later, and dessert before dinner. Our desires rule our lives, or so it would seem.

And some actions do offer instant results--I'm hungry, so I'm motivated to make supper, which I eat and instantly my motive/desire is satisfied. But what about those goals that are more abstract? What about the realm of character and the spiritual? I understand the seed, the motive that starts an action. What I'm wondering is this:

What is it that keeps us going?

Where do we get endurance from? How do we remain steadfast? "The testing of your faith produces steadfastness" (James 1:3)

I would submit to you this: that the fuel for our endurance IS our faith. As it is tested, it is either proved true or consumed, which produces a faithfulness, an endurance, a steadfastness in our lives. In spite of opposition, we are able to keep going in the good work we have begun. Why? Because He is faithful to create in us that which can withstand the test. And over time, through many trials, we gain character. We begin to see that we are His heirs in more than title.

I think faith is kind of like hope: a looking forward to what we know we already posses. Like the son who has an inheritance but yet looks forward to receiving it. We begin an action in faith, we suffer testing which proves our faith to be true, and we end up where? With hope that doesn't disappoint us.

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Ro5:3-6

At the right time. When we were still weak. Wow. Surely every ounce of our faith, our action, our hope is a gift. I want to enjoy every particle of it. I believe it is mine. Yet I have need of endurance.

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
Heb 10:35-36