“You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then He is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm.”
~ 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐌’𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐲𝐧𝐞
“Much-Afraid said to herself, ‘He has brought me here when I did not want to come, for His own purpose. I, too, will look up into His face and say, ‘Behold me! I am Your handmaiden, Acceptance-with-Joy.’”
~ 𝐇𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐡 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐝,
𝐇𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬’ 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬
𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐝,
May we choose You only, when life implodes and sorrows weigh.
May Your Mender-mediated joy be ours when grief leaves us reeling and flattened.
May Your righteous arms catch and cradle us when waves of sorrow crash without warning.
We will trust Your ways and follow, undeterred, the paths You deem best for us.
In fields of mirth, or deserts of desolation, we will avail ourselves to the joy found solely at Your side.
We will surrender to Your navigation despite the detours, and trust You for the acceptance that will surely result.
We will throw ourselves upon Your mercy, nothing wavering, and await the delayed but inevitable joy You offer in exchange.
We will trust You, Lord, for what we cannot see, and praise You for what we have yet to receive.
𝐉𝐨𝐲:
Not immediate, no, but certainly inevitable.
Lord, let it be so.
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life:
in Thy presence is fullness of joy;
at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
~ 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝟏𝟔:𝟏𝟏