This Present Darkness: A Meditation

My mind has been pondering the puzzle of suffering and poverty specifically as applies to those who belong to You. I've had the persistent belief that the children of the King deserve only the best (So true!): That if You truly cared, we would never have to feel pain.

In this educational time that most call life, we are given opportunity to act on our theories; To research our faith. I believe You wish us to understand what it was that destroyed Your child Lucifer. Your give us the chance to choose, and to help us there are our perceptions of our experiences. We can choose the emptiness of power and material things or Your love. You want us to witness and experience the consequences of what evil has wrought and cry out for more! Your desire is for us to choose what is of more value rather than this physical world. To come to know You and having Your glory developed in us is a treasure beyond words or price.

Our sacrifices are temporary. All we give to You is compounded till we see You face to face. Tears now bring everlasting joy later.

Dark

Outside Your house,
What passes for love
is greed, disguised.
Pride is more valued
than understanding.
The lives of innocents feed
the machinary of power.
Gentleness and grace
are sacrificed for
material and political gain.
Ears are closed off
to suffering and pain.
A hand stretched out
in supplication
is cut off at the wrist.

Profitable Service: A Meditation

We are given a limited sum of years to invest our soul for Your kingdom. Faith makes it a priviledge to serve in the work to which You have called us, working under the authority of Your spirit. The joy comes from the knowledge that even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances, victory has already been realized and affirmed. Our temporary pain only makes our joy in You more profound. To honor You truthfully, even in the midst of that pain, I must glorify and praise You. Only in this am I a profitable servant. It is a task thrilling beyond words. What starts as a self imposed discipline ends up being a realization of profound and absolute truth. I surrender all of my limited life to the cause of Him who is life, who is eternal, for the glory of His name.