This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 126

Reflections

Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.
~ William Shakespeare, Macbeth

The reason we don’t want to feel is that feeling exposes the tragedy of our world and the darkness of our hearts.
~ Dan Allender, The Cry of the Soul

A common but futile strategy for achieving joy is trying to eliminate things that hurt: get rid of pain by numbing the nerve ends, get rid of insecurity by eliminating risks, get rid of disappointment by depersonalizing your relationships. And then try to lighten the boredom of such a life by buying joy in the form of vacations and entertainment. There isn’t a hint of that in Psalm 126.
~ Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
~ Kahlil Gibran, 1883-1931, Author of ‘The Prophet’

The absence of tumult, more than its presence, is an enemy of the soul. God meets you in your weakness, not in your strength. He comforts those who mourn, not those who live above desperation. He reveals Himself more often in darkness than in the happy moments of life.
~ Dan B. Allender, Cry of the Soul

This Sunday’s readings: Psalm 131

Reflections

Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.
~ Carl Gustav Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss Psychiatrist

Christianity is not about our disciplined pursuit of God, but about God’s relentless pursuit of us– to the point of dying on a cross for us that we might become friends.
~ Peter Scazzero, 1956- , Psychotherapist, Author

One of the shortest Psalms to read, one of the longest to learn.
~ Charles Spurgeon, 1834-1892, English Pastor

The transition from a sucking infant to a weaned child, from squalling baby to quiet son or daughter, is not smooth. It is stormy and noisy. It is no easy thing to quiet yourself: sooner may we calm the sea or rule the wind or tame a tiger than quiet ourselves. It is a pitched battle. The baby is denied expected comforts and flies into rages or sinks into sulks. There are sobs and struggles. The infant is facing its first great sorrow and it is in sore distress. But ‘to the weaned child his mother is his comfort though she has denied him comfort. It is a blessed mark of growth out of spiritual infancy when we can forgo the joys which once appeared to be essential, and can find our solace in him who denies them to us.’
~ Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

We are not called to be awesome, not called to be amazing, nor called to be ‘more’. We are called to be loved. We are called to calm and quiet our souls in the arms of the one who is awesome; the one who is more; and in the arms of one who is exceedingly able to do beyond what we could ever ask or imagine.
~ Scott Sauls, Pastor, Sermon Clip

The point of this verse [v.2] is blunted by the RSV, which pictures a baby pacified at its mother’s breast; whereas the psalm emphasizes the word ‘weaned’, thereby drawing an analogy between the child which no longer frets for what it used to find indispensable, and the soul which has learnt a comparable lesson.
~ Derek Kidner, 1913-2008, British Old Testament Scholar