"So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:"
2 Thessalonians 1:4
This verse (and several other verses throughout the scriptures) mentions patience and faith, and it seems important that we consider those two ideals together. Sometimes we think of faith as a kind of "if you build it, he will come" sort of a thing... if we believe hard enough, it will happen. But I don't think it *is* that. In life, if we clap really hard, sometimes tinkerbell still dies, and that's hard to accept as we grow up. It's why we often prefer fantasy, because there the endings are almost always happy, and when they aren't, it is happening to someone else and we don't have to necessarily address it. It's a story that we can learn from without losing our perspective by the all-too-personal devastation of things happening that we didn't want to happen, and we don't feel obliged to solve the problem, or feel guilty for not doing so.
First I think we have to realize that God isn't a fairy tale, but then we have to learn to balance that with the bleakness of non-fiction. And I think *that* is where faith comes in. It's that trust / hope / confidence that God makes possible: the idea that reality can actually be good... that "facing the truth" doesn't have to mean cynicism. That things will get better, and that they will work out in the end. And that belief that there is good at the core of the universe, and that its name is God, is what gets us through the rest of the scarier non-fiction times. It's what helps us endure persecutions and tribulations, and unfairness and things happening totally not the way that we wanted them to. Because we know that the whole universe is working for our good, even when we can't exactly see how. We know that God loves us and that things are going to be okay... somehow, somewhere, we don't know how, but we know they WILL. Because God.
Today, let's tap into that faith that includes patience. Let's remember to put God first, and let the hope that he offers rise to the top of everything, overwhelming our cynicism and doubt. Let's do things his way, knowing that he is leading us to Good, and away from all of this bad stuff. Let's trust in that non-fiction happy ending that we can't quite see yet, and keep moving toward it.
2 Thessalonians 1:4
This verse (and several other verses throughout the scriptures) mentions patience and faith, and it seems important that we consider those two ideals together. Sometimes we think of faith as a kind of "if you build it, he will come" sort of a thing... if we believe hard enough, it will happen. But I don't think it *is* that. In life, if we clap really hard, sometimes tinkerbell still dies, and that's hard to accept as we grow up. It's why we often prefer fantasy, because there the endings are almost always happy, and when they aren't, it is happening to someone else and we don't have to necessarily address it. It's a story that we can learn from without losing our perspective by the all-too-personal devastation of things happening that we didn't want to happen, and we don't feel obliged to solve the problem, or feel guilty for not doing so.
First I think we have to realize that God isn't a fairy tale, but then we have to learn to balance that with the bleakness of non-fiction. And I think *that* is where faith comes in. It's that trust / hope / confidence that God makes possible: the idea that reality can actually be good... that "facing the truth" doesn't have to mean cynicism. That things will get better, and that they will work out in the end. And that belief that there is good at the core of the universe, and that its name is God, is what gets us through the rest of the scarier non-fiction times. It's what helps us endure persecutions and tribulations, and unfairness and things happening totally not the way that we wanted them to. Because we know that the whole universe is working for our good, even when we can't exactly see how. We know that God loves us and that things are going to be okay... somehow, somewhere, we don't know how, but we know they WILL. Because God.
Today, let's tap into that faith that includes patience. Let's remember to put God first, and let the hope that he offers rise to the top of everything, overwhelming our cynicism and doubt. Let's do things his way, knowing that he is leading us to Good, and away from all of this bad stuff. Let's trust in that non-fiction happy ending that we can't quite see yet, and keep moving toward it.
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