WELL, I should be used to this by now. Whenever the Lord lays strong words on my heart, I am in for a battle—spiritually and materially. For days now, whenever I want to write, it is as though my radar is jammed, and forming a single sentence is nearly impossible. Sometimes it’s because the “word” is not ready to speak yet; other times—and I think this is one of them—it seems as though there is an all out war on my time.
When I came home from a brief retreat in nature last week, ready to begin writing to you what I think are important words at this hour, I found my horse, Belle, [1]cf. Belle, and Training for Courage with a terrible gash on her leg from an accident while we were gone (we saved her just in the nick of time, though now we have to treat her three times a day with herbs and bandages). Then the washing machine died. Then today, my hay machinery broke. It’s been one crisis after another demanding a lot of time and running back and forth, etc.
I’m frustrated.
So, with grease on my hands and my clothes covered in dirt, I decided to pop in my office and just write you a quick note to ask for your prayers and let you know that I’m not sleeping on my watch. In fact, quite the opposite: there is so much happening, so much that I want to say, that it’s becoming a burden, as it always does, when I have a word on my heart that I cannot speak:
…it is as if fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding back, I cannot! (Jeremiah 20:9)
Things are beginning to happen so fast in our world… many are going to be taken by surprise. I mean, if I can barely keep up with what’s happening in the news—and I am watching and studying Church and world events in the context of prayer each day—how does the average person keep abreast? But as I say, this is all part of the Storm. The closer we get to the Eye, the faster the winds, the more chaotic the times, the more we will need to walk in faith and grace.
So, I have to get back to my tractor. But I will write you as soon as I can get a minute… a minute without a crisis!
But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do. (1 Thess 5:4-11)
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Footnotes
| ↑1 | cf. Belle, and Training for Courage |
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