Kernels of praise . . .

I've written too many solemn, depressed entries lately. And I guess that's okay, because I've actually not been in a good mood for a few days. But it's funny how a day can start off so extremely stressful, full of pressure, and dreadful and end up being a day when I feel wrapped up in Hope and Grace.

God gave me little gifts all through the day to remind me that things were not hopeless. I got recognized in front of the whole department for being scored on a highly achieved call. I called the bank and found that while financially I'm not where I'd like to be and things are still tight, they are not as bad as I feared. But most of all, as I recognized in my ramblings earlier, what matters is that God is still faithful. He's still on the throne and by my side. . .

In Phillipians 4:11-13, Paul writes, Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever stat I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I'd be lying if I said that I was totally 100% content and happy with my total situation right now and that life was at a 180-degree difference thaan it was this morning. But I'm learning. I'm learning that if Paul could learn to be happy with absolutely nothing. . . in fact, rejoice in it, that God can teach me to do the same. In my weakness, He is strong!

Also, in reading more of The Ragamuffin Gospel I was moved even more. Brennan Manning starts off talking about the day to day world and how God keeps it running. How he controls the spin of the axis of the Earth, keeps the stars from burning out, controls our atmosphere, monitors the spin of the planets. . . and does it with such consistency that there's not a chance of harm. And then he uses that and moves into the consistency with which the Gospel writers Paul and John wrote about the love of God. That was what they wrote about more than anything. Grace and Love, bestowed on everyone, not based on any merit. He loves me just as much as the worst "sinner" I could think of. And his attitude doesn't change with our successes or failures. And we have to think about the Being lavishing this unending, unfailing love on us. This isn't our parents, friends, or lovers. It's the Creator of the Universe. And I want to close with what Manning closes with, because it was a beautiful passage:

The gospel of grace ends any apparent dichotomy between God's power and His love. For the work of creating is an act of love. The God who flung from his fingertips this universe filled with galaxies and stars, penguins and puffins, gulls and gannets, Pomeranians and poodles, elephants and evergreens, parrots and potato bugs, peaches and pears, and a world full of children made in His own image, is the God who loves with magnificient monotony.
And anyone who has experienced the love of the Lord of the Dance will tell you: the synonym for monotonous is not boring.

C-Dubbs