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December 13, 2005
Some of the Best Insight/Advice I Ever Got
Hey, does anybody remember David Gray? Not the singer--the Covenant student, Catacombian, martial artist, poet, Star Trek fan, funny cancer victim? I do. I think of him often.
I met him when we sat next to each other in Voskuil's Contemporary Global History. A few weeks into the semester he asked me to take notes for him because he was going for a pelvis x-ray...and the rest just seemed to happen. It's a sad story and I don't want to tell it. Ask someone else if you don't know it.
Anyway, I kept in touch with him for the next few years. I would call, he'd tell me about his illness, and I would tell him about my roommate woes and pressure from college deadlines.
During one phone call, he asked me how things were going for me, and I told him my little challenged really didn't matter much--what were roommate woes and college deadlines compared to facing death and growing faith in immortality?
Please read what he said:
"Jesus has us each where he wants us. It does no good to compare. Jesus has you right where he wants you, and he will grow your faith in his own time in his own way."
I've thought of that many times since then, and have especially taken it out of its sacred memory-storage-unit in times of woe. Often, my times of woe come when I compare. Jesus, why don't I have that car? Why can ___ have a husband and not me? Why is the relationship with ___ so tough? Now that I am married, why can't I just settle down and be a good, responsible wife? Why do I provoke so many fights with him? I want a job, too! Why can't I be as pretty/skinny/graceful/smart/kind as ___? The problem is that I compare.
Oh, I hate platitudes. But that doesn't mean that they are not truthful. So -- as a reminder to myself and encouragement to you -- don't compare. That's where the trouble comes. You are right where Jesus wants you, and he is growing your faith in his own time and in his own way. Trust him. He provided each day's manna daily for his children in the desert, and he daily provides grace for today for each of us. Trust him. Rest in him.
Ponderings. | By The Newest Worker | 01:05 PM
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