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Matthew Timothy Short
Huh?

Date Joined Apr 2002
Total Posts : 635

Posted 11/28/2004 3:30 PM (GMT -6)

Let me examine my burden, for it is altogether an interior one. It attacks my heart and mind and reaches my body only from within. First, there is the burden of my pride. The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed upon me. Thinking for myself whether much of my sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly of me. As long as I set myself up as a little god to which I must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to my idol. How then can I hope to have inward peace? My heart's fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let my mind have rest. If I continue this fight through the years, then the burden will become intolerable.

Now, for pudding Tongue

Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind and seeks to attach reality to them. Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there.

Matthew Timothy Short
Huh?

Date Joined Apr 2002
Total Posts : 635

Posted 11/28/2004 3:42 PM (GMT -6)

Another source of burden in my life is artificialy. I live in secret fear that some day I will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into my poor empty soul. So I am never relaxed.

1Heart
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2004
Total Posts : 1128

Posted 11/28/2004 9:09 PM (GMT -6)

quote:
Originally posted by Tim

Another source of burden in my life is artificialy. I live in secret fear that some day I will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into my poor empty soul. So I am never relaxed.

Tim,

Thanks for being vulnerable. There is something healing about having a place in which to bear your soul to others, especially within a community who listens, handles what you've shared with gentleness, and then encourages you, and walks alongside you. That is spiritual friendship, and community at its best. Everyone can probably think of what it is like at its worst!

My greatest burden (I believe) is my expectation. I expect relationships to be loving. I expect intimacy to be what the Father envisioned, and I constantly need to remind myself that He alone can meet my expectations, and that it is grossly unfair to expect anyone else to meet those needs. I am not one who demands intimacy, but I look for it. I look for it in my marriage, in my friendships, and in community. I guess I have stars in my eyes, and I have had to take my eyes off of stars, and focus on him...time and time again.

He never promised that we would have the ideal, at least not in this life time. But He did promise that He would always be with us, in this less than ideal world. I am thankful.

God Bless,
Jo-Anne

"Sometimes all we can do is go back to the character of God, and drop anchor there."

Matthew Timothy Short
Huh?

Date Joined Apr 2002
Total Posts : 635

Posted 11/29/2004 12:18 AM (GMT -6)

I have heard that the meek is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of their own inferiority. Rather they may be in their moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but they have stopped being fooled about themselves. They have accepted God's estimate of their own life. They know they are as weak and helpless as God has declared them to be, but paradoxically, they know at the same time that they are in the sight of God, of more importance than angels. In themself, nothing; in God, everything. That is their motto. They know well that the world will never see them as God sees them and they have stopped caring. They rest perfectly content to allow God to place His own values. They will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own. Then the righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father.

They are willing to wait for that day, pudding Tongue

Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind and seeks to attach reality to them. Faith creates nothing; it simply reckons upon that which is already there.

might-be-don
Registered Member

Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 830

Posted 11/29/2004 5:06 AM (GMT -6)

quote:
Originally posted by Tim

I live in secret fear that some day I will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed to peep into my poor empty soul.

From The Message, Matthew 6 ...
"Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

eYeS W_I_D_E OPen

peace, don

"Life is a gift from God, but the years have weight in them."
Terry Scott Taylor

1Heart
Registered Member

Date Joined Feb 2004
Total Posts : 1128

Posted 12/1/2004 7:05 AM (GMT -6)

quote:
Originally posted by Tim

I have heard that the meek is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of their own inferiority. Rather they may be in their moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but they have stopped being fooled about themselves. They have accepted God's estimate of their own life. They know they are as weak and helpless as God has declared them to be, but paradoxically, they know at the same time that they are in the sight of God, of more importance than angels. In themself, nothing; in God, everything. That is their motto. They know well that the world will never see them as God sees them and they have stopped caring. They rest perfectly content to allow God to place His own values. They will be patient to wait for the day when everything will get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own. Then the righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father.

They are willing to wait for that day, pudding .

Tim, that was beautiful. (Well, except for the "pudding" part Tongue

)
I can honestly say that I've never understood what being meek meant. But I like what you describe. Whatever we are, we need to be real, to see ourselves as we are, even if we're dispicable in this life (all of us are dispicable from time to time), but paradoxically, as you've described, to see our worth in Christ. I can be real because I know who I am in Christ. I understand what He sees when He looks at me (as well as any of us can understand). I know that I am loved passionately by One who understands me better than I understand myself. It's safe to be real with Him, and because of His love, we can risk being real with others. Our son is going through trials right now, and isn't being "real" with others about who he is, about how he struggles, and I am convinced that it is because he does not yet understand his own worth in Christ. Christ needs to be our frame of reference.

I'm rambling. You said it beautifully. Thank you.

God Bless,
Jo-Anne Borg1

"Sometimes all we can do is go back to the character of God, and drop anchor there."

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