Where Would I Be?

There's a catchy new song on the radio these days that echoes a common thought of mine:

And where would I be without You?
I'd be packing my bags when I need to stay
I'd be chasing every breeze that blows my way
I'd be building my kingdom just to watch it fade away
It's true
That's me without You

Sometimes I wonder what I would be if my life didn't belong to God.  I could be in vet school right now, or a music major, or have a good job, a nice car, and a cute boyfriend just like any typical girl my age.  I could have had a grand life all about making myself happy here and now.  But I don't have time to waste running after things that won't last -- I'm too busy being God's servant in little "unimportant" things.  It may not look like much of a life at times, but the more I think of "the good life" I might have had, the more thankful I am for the good life I do have.  For I have peace and joy that money can't buy and fame can't earn.  Not that there's anything wrong with music skills and nice cars -- if those things would help me serve God, bring it on!  But they're too small to live for.  Suppose God hadn't chosen me?  What a complicated, hopeless existence.  But oh, joy and glory, He did!  And I wouldn't trade knowing Him for the world.

Hallelujah!

All I have is Christ!

Hallelujah!

Jesus is my life!

Love Is

Love is patient.

It's rubbing her back for an hour and wondering why your arms hurt.

It's listening quietly when he's upset.

It's asking her thought-provoking questions.

It's making sure he reads his Bible.

Love is kind.

It's writing him a letter without a special occasion.

It's actually doing what she jokingly requested.

It's buying his birthday present in advance when you see something he'll like.

It's writing her name in your best cursive and dotting the "i" with a heart.

It's making him healthy food when he's sick.

Love is humble.

It's thinking how handsome he looks in his work clothes.

It's not being hurt when she has friends closer than you.

It's imitating his quirky habits without realizing it.

It's doing the right thing even when it hurts him.

Love is selfless.

It's having his favorite songs stuck in your head.

It's deciding to be friends the first time you meet her.

It's praying for him every time you hear a siren.

It's staying up late to talk with her.

It's letting him go to do what God calls him to do.

Love is bearing burdens.

It's praying for him even when you don't know what you're praying about.

It's feeling slighted when he's been mistreated.

It's crying because she's sad and doesn't want to talk about it.

It's wishing he would have a problem just so you could help him with it.

Love is hopeful.

It's making faces at her across the room.

It's smiling when you think about her.

It's embarrassing her by constantly telling her you like her.

It's not wanting to hang up when he calls.

It's calling her up when you have a night off.

Love is enduring.

It's asking the same question every time you see her.

It's believing he can be restored even though he's made a wreck of his life.

It's still being friends even though you only talk to her twice a year.

It's forgiving her even though she does stupid stuff and breaks your heart.

Love is excruciating.

Love is exhilarating.

Love is worth it.

Love is from God.

 

(To all the dear people who have helped me learn what love is.)

Dear friends, let us love one another,

for love comes from God.

1 John 4:7

Of the Making of Books . . .

. . . there is no end!  (Ecclesiastes 12:12)  From where I sit, I have only to look up to see a shelf full of books, most of them new releases.  This Christian bookstore where I volunteer has scores of books -- books on missions, books on family, books on prayer, devotion books, kids' books, old classics, new classics, fiction of all sorts, and on and on.  And this bookstore has only about a dozen shelves.  I visited a used bookstore last week with scores of shelves and probably thousands of books.  Sadly, the vast majority of them were not worth reading.  And nearly as sad, in another way, is the fact that there is not enough time in life to read all the books that are worth reading.  With so many books in the world, and enough good ones to keep a reader busy for a lifetime, why on earth would we ever need one more?  Surely every subject has been discussed and dissected thoroughly by now, and furthermore, there is nothing new under the sun to be discussed.  (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

These verses in Ecclesiastes struck me with a sort of resigned discouragement from the notion of ever writing a book.  So what if I write -- everybody writes, about the same stuff, over and over.  But in thinking about it, I realized that these verses are merely stating the obvious, and my object ought to be to know why these statements are true, not to draw conclusions they don't intend.  Why, first of all, is there nothing new under the sun?  One reason I would suggest is that God has revealed as much truth as will ever be available to us this side of heaven -- we will never invent or discover more than He has already shown us in His Word and in nature.  Once in a great while a "new" idea may appear, but it is always only a different perspective of an age-old truth.

However, truth -- Truth Himself -- is so infinite, it is entirely possible to find fresh angles all the time.  Hence, the endless making of books.  Yes, the same old concepts may be discussed countless times, more or less skillfully, but we will never really get to the bottom of fathomless, timeless, divine truth.  Even now in our privileged time of history, with the accumulation of thousands of years of authors' labors, those countless volumes are not nearly enough to proclaim it.  That is overwhelming in quite a different way!  Adding to the praise of God's glorious truth is indeed an endless endeavor, more endless than the making of books.

And there are many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Amen.

John 21:25