Faith, Perseverance

just a quick thought - if you have some spare time (haha) in the next few weeks, do some reading about Abraham Lincoln. in conjunction with that, read chapter 11 of Hebrews. see what parallels you can find.

many things have been said of him - he's been hailed and villified, exalted and criticized, but man, when you look at what he overcame, it really inspires you not to give up.

1831 - Lost his job
1832 - Defeated in run for Illinois State Legislature
1833 - Failed in business
1834 - Elected to Illinois State Legislature (success)
1835 - Sweetheart died
1836 - Had nervous breakdown
1838 - Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker
1843 - Defeated in run for nomination for U.S. Congress
1846 - Elected to Congress (success)
1848 - Lost re-nomination
1849 - Rejected for land officer position
1854 - Defeated in run for U.S. Senate
1856 - Defeated in run for nomination for Vice President
1858 - Again defeated in run for U.S. Senate
1860 - Elected President (success)

in addition to all of these things, 3 of his 4 kids died young; his wife often made a fool of them both and concurrently suffered from mental illness; and he was caught in the whirlwind of a nation at war with itself.

reading about Lincoln reminds me that i need to keep faith and press on, but it also shows me that every trial that is allowed to come my way has been designed by God for my good. Lincoln never could have held up in the White House if he hadn't experienced all of his prior hardships and failures. i don't know if he was a Christian or not, and that's not what i'm addressing. i just think we can learn and be inspired from his life.

so i encourage you, in these dark days of december, if your faith is being tested, don't cave in or break down - let God love you. let Him show you the plans He has for you. let Him whisper His promises into your listening heart.

persevere!

interesting, isn't it?

how we move from one thing into the next. almost without a breath. i sit here, on december 5, and the sweet sounds of diana krall and vince guaraldi swirl around my office. yes, it's the holiday jazz station on pandora.com and i can't get enough. i listen at home and at work and anywhere we can get wifi on the laptop. (just kidding, i'm not quite that obsessed. yet.) but it's so smooth and light and dreamy, and i think that if mary and joseph had had access to pandora.com in the stable, they would definitely have been listening to this through the delivery.
anyway. back to my original idea. i started listening to this stuff the day after thanksgiving. november 28. we put up our tree that weekend. there are tealights all over my house, in shimmery little cups and stained glass holders, and there are glittery balls and garlands and yada yada. hardly time to be properly thankful, and i'm already redecorating. and i do it every year. i always had the monday after t-giving off from school, because in western pa, we hunt. but i don't. so that was decorating day.

we do. we move so quickly from one station of life to the next, sometimes without blinking. we push out the fake leaves to make room for the fake snow. the pumpkin garland gets packed in the box from which we take the poinsettia and holly swag. and on and on. do you realize that stores will soon have out their valentine's day merch? then, holy cats, it's swimsuit season. and on and on. when do we take time to just be? when do we stop scurrying robotically into the next thing and just enjoy what God is doing now?
remember when God made adam and it says that He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living being? (Gen. 2:7) maybe that's the key. maybe in order to be a truly living being, we need to breathe in the breath of God. maybe we need to stop and allow Him to fill us with His breath, His spirit. the breath of life.
pause, close your eyes, clear your mind, and just breathe. ask God to fill you with His breath of life.
peace to you!