Faith and Hope

Recently I have been reading through a men's devotional book. This morning was about how struggles and hard times can shake our faith in God, but if we continue to seek Him and to reflect on His past faithfulness they can be an opportunity for our faith to grow deeper and stronger. It caused me to spend some time writing in my gratitude journal, something I've neglected to do for far too long. My hope is that my records of God's faithfulness will help me to stand strong when I find it hard to trust Him. Then I got on with my day and, as too often happens, largely forgot about my morning reflections. As I was hanging out the laundry, however, my apartment mate gave me an illustration for my reflections. He said, "I just realized that our grape vine lives on faith. Look, it's already producing leaves and we haven't had any rain yet." It's true. We haven't had any rain in this country since October. All of the leaves from last rain season have long since shrivelled up, fallen off, and turned into dusty little bits swirling around in the hot breeze on our patio. Our poor grapevine hasn't seen a drop of rain in 8 months, and yet this week it is putting out big, green leaves. As I thought about it I realized that the mango trees have started producing loads of juicy mangoes as well, and they must be using up their last precious stores of water to do so. All of the plants in this country have started to bloom and blossom and produce fruit- and all of them are doing so because they "trust" that God will send rain soon. It is programmed into their DNA to prepare for the rain before it actually falls. God hasn't programmed us to trust Him; it requires a daily decision of faith. Sometimes that choice is hard, but if we want to grow and flourish we would be wise to look to the trees which have been doing so for hundreds of years by living in faith.

whack-a-mole

I got two moles whacked off today, but I'm the one with the spinning head! The dermatologist didn't give me quite enough anesthetic for the first one so he really loaded me up before he removed the second one. I told him that I didn't mind a little bit of pain but I guess I must have been flinching and making him nervous or something. Anyway, I had a good bit of numbness by the time he was done, and now I'm still feeling a bit dizzy an hour and a half later. This must be what it's like to be drunk. Way over-rated, in my opinion! I'm not so much looking forward to the stuff wearing off, though. I didn't write down which pain killer he recommended and now I've forgotten it, so I'm planning to do without. It's weird, I had two moles removed a couple years ago and I remember it being a total non-event. I don't think it even hurt, at least not more than a scraped elbow. This time he must have gone a lot deeper because he said he put sutures in and I need to go back in 11 days so he can remove them. This was like a proper surgery! And he used a laser, which makes it cool. At any rate, I thank God for a good dermatologist here who could take care of these things.

Do not be dismayed.

When God called Jeremiah He said to him: "Speak to [the rulers of Judah] all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will be dismay you before them." So often we think that others terrify us, that situations terrify us, that we can't possibly cope with the pressure, and we cry out to God for help. His reply is, "I have already overcome the world. Quit allowing yourself to fear." Fear is not thrust upon us; we choose it for ourself. We need to diligently trust God and allow His love to push us past our fears.