Hosea 11

Tonight I read Hosea 11. In order to understand this post you really must read the whole chapter. In the beginning God talks about how he raised Israel as a child and taught him how to walk. However, Israel turned away from Him like a rebellious youth, deliberately doing the opposite of what God commanded. Furthermore, Israel lied to God and about God, pretending to love Him while really killing his prophets and worshiping the ridiculous idols that they borrowed from the neighbors. They persisted in slandering God, causing Him profound pain and dishonor.

God knows that they must be punished, that great judgement is due. But in verse 8 He says "My heart is turned over within Me, all of my compassions are kindled." It is not that God is weak. On the contrary, He is so angry that if He were subject to his emotions like a man He would act out in His rage and destroy Israel completely (v9). But God is also grieved.

Human parents often say, when they discipline a child, "this hurts me more than it hurts you." And it is true, though the child doesn't believe it. Imagine if you had to discipline all of your children at the same time. Imagine that you had a million children, each of whom you loved as if he or she were your only child, and you had to discipline all of them. Each one. Can you imagine the misery? And what if, in addition to being their father, you also had to be the judge, and they had just stolen? Committed adultery? Murdered someone? What then? We have no way of imagining the sorrow of God when His people sin.

A God-sized wrath combined with a God-sized sorrow produces a God-sized mercy made possible by a God-sized sacrifice that satisfies divine justice.

Gettin' Old

Here are some thoughts from folks nearing the end of their life. They were originally in French and I have taken the liberty of translating into English.

"I do not think that my life is useless, meaningless. I can no longer do anything but go from my bed to my armchair. As long as God leaves me on earth, it is because He thinks that my place is still here. For me, I have no other occupation but to pray and to love."

"Being aged is marvelous because each day draws me closer to God."

"The third age (elderliness) is the age of rest, not of inertia. Everything becomes more simple, we ligthen our load and taste peace."

"At 95 years of age I have finally understood why the Lord is leaving me on earth for so long; it is because I still have lessons to learn here, especially serenity."

"I thank the Lord that he is not like the employers of this world who send on retirement their old servants whose productivity has reduced with age. He wants to use me well until my last breath."

"La Bonne Semence" 7 novembre 2009

Much to Say, But..

As you probably were not aware, I have recently completed a week and a half of vacation. France has long school breaks. I spent most of this vacation sorting through information, especially pictures, that has buried itself in the memory of computer for the past 4 years. I also sorted through actual papers and "junk" that has been not-so-subtly accumulating in my little room for the past year and a half. In the end I have a mild sense of having escaped from unwanted baggage- and in the process also "escaped from" week and a half of my life.

I did almost nothing memorable that whole time, except for one good adventure where I got myself lost in the neighboring town. That was a good afternoon of biking. The sun was setting so I headed back home- or so I thought. Then I arrived at a train station that was a long distance in the opposite direction from my school. How did that get there? I still got home before dark, though, so it wasn't too exciting.

Last night as I was walking out of our local mega grocery store I saw a poster for a 7K happening in our very own park on the 14th. That reminded me of how I haven't even run in the past week, so hermit-like have I been in my room. It ticked me off. So, in spite of the dark, I went for a run. I don't know if I will run that 7K or not. I still need to buy new running shoes (now more than ever!) but I just can't make myself spend that kind of money.

Okay... I wasn't planning to write anything that I just wrote. In the middle of this muddled week I have nevertheless been doing some really good reading. First in the Bible, where I have been working through Hosea. I have seen some really interesting things there but I am a little hesitant to post them here because, well, I am fallible and I might be wrong.

Second, I have been reading "Pilote de guerre" (War Pilot) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is well written and I therefore do not mind having to look up an average of 4 words per page. I would highly recommend reading it (in English if you can't do the French). It is not the typical "Yay, isn't it heroic being a pilote?" story. Rather, it is all of the internal thoughts and feelings of an eloquent French pilot as he embarks on a seemingly useless mission in the already-lost war against the technologically and strategically superior Nazis. Yet it isn't as depressing as that summary makes it sound. It is just realistic and very human. Most of his thoughts are not related to the war, but rather what it means to be human.