Killing frustration

While I was on my way to the restaurant where I would have lunch with my parents, I pulled out the little notebook I carry on my pocket and wrote:

"Lord, let me never forget where I've come from"

As I was writing, a conversation I just had with a friend was still fresh in my mind: he doesn't seem to care whether God loves him but only whether justice is going to be served in his peculiar context.

"Where is God?" he expressed with evident frustration yet apathetic tone of voice at the end of our time together.

Ever felt it so easy to own other people's frustration? I did.

I am in danger of slipping into that pattern of thought whenever I hear complaining coming my way. And because I'm tempted to lose sight of how I made it where I am, I can not help but remember one of most life-changing passages I've ever read:

"Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? So, why do you boast as though you did not receive?" (1 Cor 4:7-8)

God. Nothing. Yes, you're right. Those are the answers.

But it is one thing to store them in my brain yet quite another thing to have them in my bloodstream.

Lord, help me in my weakness.

Better than folly

Graduating classes of undergraduate Peruvian students have for tradition attaching a commemorative plaque with the names of all the graduates to the wall of their alma mater. And although it takes most classes a few months after graduation to have it ready, it took mine more than four years to do so.

When the plaque was at last ready, the date for the unveiling ceremony was set and I was asked to write a speech. What follows is the closing paragraph of that speech (originally written in Spanish).

By the way, what is this life of ours? It’s like a vapor: one day we are, the next we may be not. Therefore, while our breath lasts, let us continue on the race, wherever we are, seeking to reach out for that door that seems elusive to us. Doubtless there will be more times of fighting but also times of resting. Sooner or later, we’ll realize how intertwined joy and suffering are on this side of eternity. If the times seem confusing to us, let us not get discouraged. Rather let us keep in mind that pride precedes destruction and arrogance comes before failure. But wisdom comes alongside humility. That’s why it is written: “wisdom is better than folly, as light is better than darkness”

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Plaque footnote saying says: "...la sabiduria sobrepasa a la necedad, como la luz a las tinieblas" (Eccl 2:13, RV60)

Responding to spiritual depression and grief

Psalm 42 is one of my favorite psalms. It paints a beautiful picture of a soul battling spiritual depression. It begins with these words: “As the deer pants for the flowing streams, so pants my soul for you oh God, the living God” (Psalms 42:1). So I think it is worth checking John Piper's new series entitled “Psalms: Thinking and Feeling with God”. I’ve listened to the first two sermons and came away encouraged by them. You can download the one on Psalms 42 here.

One interesting verse Piper pointed to was Job 6:26: “Do you think you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind”. In context, Job says those words in reply to his friend Eliphaz who had in turn replied to the first speech Job gave in front of his friends after losing all he had but his life.

Job’s response to Eliphaz tells me that it is possible to find Christians who in the midst of their grief and pain may seem to miss the big picture, namely that nothing happens by chance, that God is always in control of everything, that He will wipe away their tears one day and so forth. Therefore, we may be quick to correct their inaccurate speech -compared with wind in the verse I just mentioned- about God and his greater purposes. We may be prone to teach and instruct when all what they need in that moment is to be listened, to find a shoulder to weep in, to feel an arm around their shoulder

Now, if there is something else they need from us, the Spirit will guide us into. I'd only add to that, some silent prayers on their behalf that they may keep hoping in God and that they may come to see and taste Christ’s deep love for them. For I know no other love that can seal our deepest wounds.

Rewriting it

The morning breeze
smites my face softly,
whistling a song seasoned in salt and mist for me.
Yet I am walking down the slope.

It blows hard in my face,
I hear it roaring.
It slows me down a bit
Yet it stops me not

Now, its salty taste has crawled to my lips
The mist?
It is gone already,
And I am yet to be ashore

The waves roar louder and louder,
the burning sand claims my bare feet
Here they are! – I say
While the seagulls pass by swiftly

The waves are crashing
Yet I lift my eyes to the sky
and behold an array of light rays filters through silver clouds
to touch down the waters I see away in the horizon

Oh, what a magnificent view!
My eyes cease not to delight in it
Dazzled at it, my doubts slowly vanish
And I ponder.

I imagine He learned of my sad summer song
And so He wanted to inspire me to rewrite it
with a breath of joy and freedom
Thanks so much Beloved Friend

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Reescribiendo

La brisa matutina
golpea mi rostro gentilmente
y me silba una canción con rocío y sal.
Mas yo ando de bajada

Me sopla fuerte en la cara
y le oigo rugir.
Atenúa mi caminar,
mas no me detiene

Su sabor salado en mis labios ya está
El rocío?
Se ha desvanecido ya
Y yo aún no llego a la costa

El rumor de las olas crece más y más,
mientras el calor de la arena clama por mis pies descalzos.
“Helos aqui!” - le dije
Y las gaviotas murmurando pasan raudas.

Las olas rompiendo están.
Levanto mi mirada al cielo
y he aquí un haz de luz entre plateadas nubes
las aguas del horizonte bañando está

Oh, cuán esplendorosa vista!
Mis ojos se rinden en deleite ante ella
disipando mis dudas lentamente.
Y pienso.

Imagino que El supo de mi triste canción de verano
y quiso animarme a reescribirla
con aliento de gozo y libertad.
Gracias muchas, Amado Amigo