Victory in Jesus

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)

I came across this and it sounded familiar, but having never read any of the LOTR books I knew I was mistaken. I'm not as complete a nerd as I could be, I have seen the movies and enjoyed them, maybe one day I'll have the time on my hands to read the series. That's not the point of this though. I've heard that there's a lot of symbolism in Lord of the Rings to Christianity, and while I haven't seen the movies in a good bit, I do like the reminder that I get from this quote. When looking at it from a Christian perspective, the truthfulness and reality of it are obvious. The things we pursue as Christians may not be flashy and fabulous like the fortunes of this world, but they still hold importance and are more valuable than anything the earth can offer. When we doubt and lose our way, maybe we backslide for a period, this doesn't mean we're lost. Once you have declared that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will always be one of His children. That is a promise. Having a strong relationship with God over a long period of time will keep you from succumbing to the outside forces that try to destroy that bond. Does this mean that there won't be any adversity? No, and just as the frost comes every winter, we can be positive of the obstacles that we will face. In the second stanza, I just see the coming of Jesus and the reassurance of our eternity. Just reading it over and over again, and wow. It amazes me! We have the victory because Jesus will be king and He will be the light to this present darkness. I didn't mean to write an essay's worth of thoughts on this short passage, but God spoke to me through it, and I didn't want to forget any of it.

Temptation

I've been reading Jane Eyre for the first time and I feel like I've just passed one of the most important parts of the story. If you haven't read it, I don't want to spoil anything, but it is kind of a long story so it doesn't really matter. Anywho, Jane finds out that Mr. Rochester is not the unblemished man she believed him to be and has to make the decision of whether she will stay with him at Thornfield or start a new life elsewhere. Of course he pleads with her and tells the truth about his story that he had been hiding from her and pours out his heart in hopes that she will stay. Jane has some profound thoughts that I think we could learn a lesson from. She doesn't have anyone in her life that would suffer the consequences and fallen reputations from her staying with him. Jane asks herself, "Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?" And she stands resolute with a confident, "I care for myself." Sometimes we don't give ourselves enough say in what is best for our life, we let others dictate our goals, plans, and even self-esteem. Satan tries to cloud our mind with what we don't have and long for rather than focusing on what is most important, our own well-being. God cares for us so we should care for us.
Jane goes on to say, "Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour... If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?... Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot." This is such a great reminder and encouragement to me. We all have standards and sometimes in a desperate hour think about the compromise to lower these for personal satisfaction. Why have standards and values if you don't regard them as the law for your life? In times of temptation, all we have to remember are the Words that God has given us as a guide and that should be where we have our foundation.

"Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees." Job 4:4
"You are my refuge and shield; your word is my source of hope." Psalm 119:114

Grits

I know this is really weird, but I have a new found love for Grits. I just eat the instant kind for now because I don't have a lot of time on my hands, I guess I don't really know how long it takes to make un-instant grits, but I assume they take a while, and you know what assuming does. At least I do. But grits remind me of two things. My best friend Emily's old hamster that died of obesity and the popular books/t-shirts/merchandise. Girls Raised In The South for those who don't know or remember. Here's a little clip I found to describe the south that I think does it pretty good justice.

This is my South:

My South is full of honest, hard-working people. My South is colorblind. In my South, we don't put a premium on pigment. No one cares whether you are black, white, red or green with orange polka dots. My South is the birthplace of blues and jazz, and rock n' roll. It has banjo pickers and fiddle players, but it also has B.B. King, Muddy Waters, the Allman Brothers, Emmylou Harris and Elvis. My South is hot. My South smells of newly mowed grass. My South was the South of The Partridge Family, Hawaii 5-0 and kick the can. My South was creek swimming, cane-pole fishing and bird hunting. In my South, football is king, and the Southeastern Conference is the kingdom. My South is home to the most beautiful women on the planet. In my South, soul food and country cooking are the same thing. My South is full of fig preserves, cornbread, butter beans, fried chicken, grits and catfish. In my South we eat foie gras, caviar and truffles. In my South, our transistor radios introduced us to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the same time they were introduced to the rest of the country. In my South, grandmothers cook a big lunch every Sunday. In my South, family matters, deeply. My South is boiled shrimp, blackberry cobbler, peach ice cream, banana pudding and oatmeal cream pies. In my South people put peanuts in bottles of Coca Cola and hot sauce on almost everything. In my South the tea is iced and almost as sweet as the women. My South has air-conditioning. My South is camellias, azaleas, wisteria and hydrangeas. In my South, the only person that has to sit on the back of the bus is the last person that got on the bus. In my South, people still say "yes, ma'am," "no ma'am," "please" and "thank you." In my South, Sunday is for church. The Ten Commandments mean something. In my South, we all wear shoes & clothes....some of the time. My South is the best-kept secret in the country. Please continue to keep the secret....it keeps the idiots away.    -Robert St. John

In reading this, I found that the voice in my head read it with the most pronounced Southern drawl. Wonder why that is? Hope you enjoyed it!

Swallowing Camels

I've been meaning to post this and it's kind of long so bear with me, but you should definitely read it. It is the appendix from Frederick Douglass's "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave". I recommend you read the whole book, but the appendix at the end was the most inspiring and eye-opening part to me. I was going to type it out, but realized it's much too long, so here's a link:
"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave"
He makes the comment, "Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. Could anything be more true of our churches?" This was an inexplicably horrible time in the history of America, but I think we shouldn't believe we're so far removed from the people of this time in certain aspects. I'll speak for myself, but we will obsess over the tiniest imperfections in others and take our own with two grains of salt. (I'm not sure if that's the right analogy, I'm not very good with those) I pray that I can learn from the past to truly live the Word of God and not just interpret it to what I want to hear or what I think will fit my life. And heaven forbid I use it to justify my own sin. This is getting lengthy in spite of my efforts so please give it a read, you won't be disappointed!