the moon .

Last night was a tough one to sleep in. My body was (and is still) sore (from broomballing) and my head was wrought with worry and fear, full of loud thoughts countering my efforts (if you can call it that) to go to sleep. My eyes were closed but heavy with tension. "Not helping." It was probably about 3 when I decided to open my eyes. But instead of thick darkness, I was pleasantly surprised to see the room dimly lit by the moon. It was positioned in the sky so that its light shone through the edges of the curtain onto my face. It was calming... comfortable... My once-relentless thoughts cooled down as my focus was diverted to the waning moon, its light bright enough to guide a lost wanderer (thankfully, for me, in a forest of thoughts and worry), but dim enough to look directly at.

The purpose of the moon. Why is it there, this gray lump of mass, just circling its orbit around the earth? It serves several functions in the earth's tides and seasons and telling of time, but I feel that its main purpose is its light.

I wish I could always sleep beneath the light of the moon.
It wouldn't phase me. (bahhahahahaa)

Humility is the moon. The moon knows that it has no light of its own so it doesn't float around in space saying, "Look at me shine! Look at me shine!" No, it simply reflects the light of the sun to the earth. That's a picture of a good worship leader. Yes, people will look at you, but you are just a reflection of a greater Light. And this Light is life to all who seek it.
-Chris Tomlin

g.k. chesterton

“The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

easier said than done.

It is so hard to swallow your own pride. I am at default quick to gnash at and bite up other people's pride. But can I really bite my tongue and grit my teeth and gulp down all the words my pride tells me to say? This is not to say to keep it all in and be the "better" person by not saying anything at all (which I don't think will be helpful...plus, trying to be the "better" person can sometimes be the wrong motive). I think things can be righted with proper words and tones, in civility, and with effort from all sides. But in a situation where no one is completely at fault but then again not completely in the right, it's much easier to spotlight and shame anyone else's wrongs. And without communication, everything is just...stuck. Murky. 'Everyone else is in the wrong, so why should I say or do anything?' It is really hard to admit that I was wrong especially when others won't admit they were too. Being the first one to admit anything in and of itself is really hard.

And even after giving in and acknowledging and apologizing and taking heat, but others still aren't budging, am I able to rejoice in my suffering, not mope and sulk in it? Instead of staying stuck in my sobbing and listing out all my horrible feelings to God and swimming in misery, am I able to sing songs of praise and declare God is still good and worthy to be praised?

It's all so much easier said than done...

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more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
-romans5.3-5 esv
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count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
-james1.2-4 esv

d.l.moody

character is what you are in the dark.

God is sovereign.