ADVICE & THOUGHTS WITHIN THE FAMILY!

From an older sister:

"The Lord never asks us to do anything we can do. He asks us to live a life which we can never live and to do a work which we can never do. Yet, by his grace, we are living it and doing it." ~ Watchman Nee

"Cast your cares upon the Lord and he will sustain you." Psa - 55:22

Go well with the prep and new challenges,

God bless,


From a younger brother:



Thank you. That Psalm (55) was what I needed. It sounds over the top, but it was still how I was feeling. I had to sing/play it through twice, to own it properly & I think I'll have to do that a few more times before the week (or day) is out!

Amen.

..by his grace we will live it and do it. Along these lines, (though seemingly opposite) is this excerpt from George MacDonald's parable of the Singer which has helped me in the past. You've reminded me of it again:


And lo behind me was a great hole in the rock narrow at the entrance but deep and wide within and when I looked into it I shuddered for I thought I saw far down the glimmer of a star. The youth entered and vanished. His guide strode back to his seat and I lay in terror near the mouth of the vast cavern. When I looked up once more I saw all the men leaning forward with head aside as if listening intently to a far off sound. I likewise listened but though much nearer than they I heard nothing, but I could see their faces change like waters in a windy and half cloudy day. Sometimes though I heard nought it seemed to me as if one sighed and prayed beside me and once I heard a clang of music triumphant in hope but I looked up and lo it was the listeners who stood on their feet and sang. They ceased, sat down, and listened as before. At last one approached me and I ventured to question him: "Sir" I said "wilt thou tell me what it means?" And he answered me thus "The youth desired to sing to the Immortals. It is a law with us that no one shall sing a song who cannot be the hero of his tale, who cannot live the song that he sings, for what right hath he else to devise great things and to take holy deeds in his mouth. Therefore he enters the cavern where God weaves the garments of soul, and there he lives in the forms of his own tale, for God gives them being that he may be tried. The sighs which thou didst hear were his longings after his own Ideal, and thou didst hear him praying for the Truth he beheld but could not reach. We sang because in his first great battle he strove well and overcame. We await the next!

from "Within & Without" a dramatic poem.

I suppose the corollary of Watchman Nee's quote might be "The Lord never asks us to do anything we (that's him & us) can't do (that's with a permanent life that is richer & bigger than this small biological life - that, like our baby-teeth, was meant to fall out in order for the permanent to break through)."

So, in the words of Ransom, in "Out of the Silent Planet" (by C.S. Lewis):
"In the name of the Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit,
Geronimo!"