storms

"There are some things you learn best in the calm, & some in the storm."

-Willa Cather

On Waiting

"Learn to wait - life's hardest lesson,
Conned perchance, through blinding tears,
While the heart-throbs slowly echo
To the tread of passing years.

Learn to wait - hope's slow fruition;
Faint not, though the way seem long;
There is joy in each condition,
Hearts, through suffering, may grow strong.

Constant sunshine, however welcome,
Never would ripen fruit or flower;
Giant oaks owe half their greatness
To the scathing tempest's power.

Thus a soul untouched by sorrow
Aims not at a higher state;
Joy seeks not a brightest morrow,
Only sad hearts learn to wait.

Human strength and human greatness
Spring not from life's sunny side,
Heroes must be more than driftwood
Floating on a waveless tide."

-The humbler poets: a collection of newspaper and periodical verse, 1870-1885

On Sharpening

"Exhort one another daily, lest you become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." -Hebrews 3:13

"The Sepulchre in the Garden"

Where the end of hope is, there is the brightest beginning of fruition. Where the darkness is thickest, there the bright beaming light that never is set is about to emerge.

- Henry Ward Beecher

Who we really are

"Adversity is like a strong wind.

It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn,

so that we see ourselves as we really are."

-Arthur Golden

Living in Denial

"Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances. If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God because faith needs nothing of the kind." -George Mueller

Excuses

"Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 'Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether i the deepest depths or in the highest heights.'

But Ahaz said, 'I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.'"

-Isaiah 7:10-12

Ahaz wants to be seen as righteous by refusing to test God. Really, God told him to ask for a sign, and Ahaz didn't want to hear what He had to say. We might try to use "righteous" excuses to avoid hearing from God, but He wants us to question and listen with honest hearts.