Category Archives: Desolation’s Gift

Daily Riches: The “Comedy of Grace” (Kathleen Norris, Henri Bergson and John Keats)

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Suffering and Grace

“The comedy of grace is that it so often comes to us as loss, sorrow, and foul-smelling waste…. It is easy to be attracted to the idea of grace–which one dictionary defines as ‘divine love and protection bestowed freely on people’–but much harder to recognize this grace when it comes as pain and unwelcome change…. For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn’t know we needed and take us to places where we didn’t want to go.”  Kathleen Norris

“Call the world if you please, the ‘vale of soul-making.’ Then you will find out the use of the world.” John Keats

“The mystics simply open their souls to the oncoming wave.” Henri Bergson

“Very truly I tell you, when you were younger
you dressed yourself and went where you wanted;
but when you are old you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
Jesus, to Peter about his death, in John 21:18

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • We often romanticize lofty terms like “love”, “grace” or “hope.” Have you sanitized these words so they represent only pleasant, satisfying experiences?
  • Have you realized that grace can come to you “as loss, sorrow, and foul-smelling waste?” Are you willing to accept that kind of grace?
  • Can you “simply open your soul to the oncoming wave” as you trust God to use this sometimes foul-smelling world at the “vale of soul-making” for you?

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For More: Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris

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These “Daily Riches are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. Please follow my blog and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Expectations Dashed (Larry Crabb and Larry Hein)

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Suffering and Grace

“When the fact is faced that life is profoundly disappointing, the only way to make it is to learn to love. And only those who are no longer consumed with finding satisfaction now are able to love. Only when we commit our yearnings for perfect joy to a Father we have learned to deeply trust are we free to live for others despite the reality of a perpetual ache.” Larry Crabb

“May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is Father, Son, and Spirit.”  Larry Hein

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,
about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure,
so that we despaired of life itself.
Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.
But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves
but on God, who raises the dead.”
2 Corinthians 1:8-9

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • I always hoped to “leave my mark” on my world. As it turns out, it looks like it may be more like a smudge. Have you realized that many of your hopes and aspirations will never be fulfilled?
  • Have you made peace with that?
  • Have you learned that “dashed expectations”, “thwarted plans” and even a “perpetual ache” are not only unavoidable in this life, but useful?
  • How might disappointment teach you to “learn to love”, to experience the “poverty of a child”, and to “dance in the love of God?”

Abba, I want to rely, not on myself, but only on you, the God who raises the dead.

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For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: The School of Spiritual Formation (J. I. Packer)

Posted on by under Death Daily, Desolation's Gift, Patience with Yourself, Spiritual Formation

“Cross-bearing is the long lesson of our mortal life. It is a part of God’s salvation, called sanctification. It is a lesson set before us every moment of every day. It concerns this strange and daunting business of how strain and pain–passion, in the sense of conscious suffering voluntarily accepted–may be transmuted into glory. If life were an art lesson, we could describe it as a process of finding how to turn this mud into that porcelain, this discord into that sonata, this ugly stone block into that statue, this tangle of threads into that tapestry. In fact, however, the stakes are higher than in any art lesson. It is in the school of sainthood that we find ourselves enrolled and the artifact that is being made is ourselves.” J. I. Packer

“Surely it was for my benefit
  that I suffered such anguish.”
  Isaiah 38:17
(King Hezekiah, after recovering from a near fatal illness)

From the Head to the Heart

  • What could you do on a daily basis to be more aware of God’s work in you, “transmuting” you, in “every moment of every day?”
  • What kinds of things keep you from this awareness?
  • Packer reminds us that this is “the long lesson of our mortal life.” Can you be patient with yourself and God during this long, gradual process of “strain and pain” and “anguish?”

Abba, help me to be mindful each day of the ways you’re working to change me through my circumstances – especially when it comes to “conscious suffering voluntarily accepted.” Help me in this school of sainthood.

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For More: Christianity: The True Humanism by J. I Packer and Thomas Howard

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Approval Addiction and Being the Beloved (Donald McCullough)

Posted on by under applause, Being the Beloved, Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits

“One of the most important gifts that came my way in those days of misery [removal from ministry], I now realize, was the loss of public approval. … It forcibly separated me–the essential me– from the public’s perception of me. … To learn, not just in my head but in the depths of my being, that I was someone different from and always more than the perception of others was like being in a hot, stuffy room and having the windows thrown open. … [Now] I’m not much impressed with the cheering or overly worried about the jeering. I am who I am thank God. And yes, thank God, because who I am is a child of God, a beloved of God, a man in whom God takes delight. I had known this before, to be sure, but I didn’t know how much I still needed to learn it until I came to the limitations of public approval. Enduring these limitations was something I wouldn’t have wished on my worst enemy; now it’s something that, if not for the dishonor of it, I would covet for my dearest friends.”  Donald McCullough

“I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court;
indeed, I do not even judge myself.  …
It is the Lord who judges me. …
He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness
and will expose the motives of the heart.
At that time each will receive their praise from God.”
the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:3-5

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Do you know in the depths of your being that you’re “someone different from and always more than the perception of others?”
  • Have you come to the place where you can “care very little” about the cheering or jeering (or judgment) of others?
  • The next time someone cheers you or jeers you, can you return to your “essential” status as “beloved of God” instead of letting cheering or jeering define you?

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For More: The Consolations of Desolation by Donald McCullough

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Desolation’s Gift (Ruth Barrows and Kathleen Norris)

Posted on by under Death Daily, Desolation's Gift, Suffering and Grace

“God is trying to get us to accept a state where we have no assurance within that all is well … where no clear path lies before us, where there is no way; a state of spiritual inadequacy experienced in it’s raw, humiliating bitterness.” Only when we admit that we have “no way” do we have any hope of finding one. Out of what seems desolate a newly vigorous faith can arise, a certainty that is not subject to changes in moods or feelings, or the vicissitudes of life.” Kathleen Norris, quoting Carmelite Ruth Burrows

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way,
consider it an opportunity for great joy.
… for when your endurance is fully developed,
you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
James 1:2,4

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Our first response is not usually to look at “desolation” and “troubles” as gifts or an “opportunity for great joy.” Burrows, Norris and James team up to convince us otherwise.
  • Being “complete” (James) sounds a lot like Norris’s “vigorous faith” … not subject to changes in moods or feelings, or the vicissitudes of life.” Have you experienced the kind of faith that transcends feelings and circumstances? If so, did you learn it in times of ease, or in times of trouble?
  • Have you ever thought of desolation as God’s gift to you as his child – “giving” trouble into your life so you enter a state where “there is no way?”  where you experience “spiritual inadequacy” and “humiliating bitterness?” I imagine for many who follow Jesus, that would be a new, and perhaps disturbing thought. It sounds pretty brutal. Might it be true?
  • Can you embrace desolation in your life in order to receive its gift? Perhaps if we can remember the ministry of desolation in our lives, we won’t refuse it. Is there desolation at work right now in your life? Will you embrace it?

Abba, thank you for working in me to make me whole. Help me to embrace your sometimes painful love.

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For More: Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Longing and Satisfaction (Larry Crabb and John Climacus)

Posted on by under Desolation's Gift, Ego Issues, Humility

“Nothing is more humbling than the recognition of (1) a deep thirst that makes us entirely dependent on someone else for satisfaction and (2) a depth of corruption that stains everything we do–even our efforts to reform–with selfishness. To realistically face what is true within us puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Larry Crabb

“Like the sun which shines on all alike, vainglory beams on every occupation. What I mean is this. I fast and I turn vainglorious. I stop fasting so that I will draw no attention to myself, and I become vainglorious over my prudence. I dress well or badly, and am vainglorious in either case. I talk or I hold my peace, and each time I am defeated. No mater how I shed this prickly thing, a spike remains to stand up against me.” John Climacus

“O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in your sanctuary
and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise you! …
You satisfy me more than the richest feast.”
Psalm 63:1-5a

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Have you concluded that you are “entirely dependent upon someone else [God] for satisfaction?”  Have you become aware of “a depth of corruption in you that stains everything you do … with selfishness?”
  • Are you able to “sit with” the longings that accompany these admissions and then bring them to God as the Psalmist does?
  • Crabb says facing these truths “puts us in touch with a level of helplessness we don’t care to experience.” Are you willing to go with God to this place of pain? What would be the point?

Abba, like the psalmist, help me to honestly admit my longings to myself and to you, and may I find satisfaction in you alone, regardless of what happens with my longings.

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For More: Inside Out by Larry Crabb

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)