Tears in a Bottle
Psalms 56:8
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
Yesterday's blog was hard to write: Considering the wrath of God in the face of people's sinful complacency. Yet, we must always remember to think of God's mercy, too...in Christ, He is neither capricious in His wrath nor His mercy. He responds with favor towards those who plead for forgiveness and repent with sincerity (and change as a result) into truly better people. Yet, God hardens His face towards those who show no sorrow for their evil, don't confess sin, reject grace, and essentially tell God, "Thanks, but no thanks" as if Christ dying on the Cross is something we as sinners can toss in the trash like junk mail.
I have been working on a book about college transition for almost two months now and I am nearly finished. One section that I have delayed writing about because of its difficulty is facing the tragedy of life honestly...neither minimizing how horrible it is for many (I really can't put myself in this lot because much of my suffering is self-induced) but also to not despair as one without hope. To keep both the reality of suffering and the reality of hope in tension, and not trying to resolve this tension flippantly by uttering something profoundly insensitive, like Job's friends, that the victims of evil somehow deserve and extra measure of tragedy. Or, just to utter, "Poor suckers."
In my book, I want to tell the story of Kevin Carter, a photographer who won the Pulitzer Prize for the photograph here . When Lina and I were in Montana, we happened to be there at the same time when an exhibition of Pulitzer Prize photographs was being hosted by the University of Montana. This picture, and others like it, made for a sad afternoon. As I learned about Kevin Carter's life and his ultimate suicide at 33, I knew that I had to tell his story as best I could because his tragic story is one jagged piece from the mirror of the broken creation.
Carter said, in his suicide note, "The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist."
The Scripture verse above assures us that our wandering are watched by God and our tears are kept by Him rather than to just evaporating into the thin air of an apathetic universe. This should give us great joy...
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
Yesterday's blog was hard to write: Considering the wrath of God in the face of people's sinful complacency. Yet, we must always remember to think of God's mercy, too...in Christ, He is neither capricious in His wrath nor His mercy. He responds with favor towards those who plead for forgiveness and repent with sincerity (and change as a result) into truly better people. Yet, God hardens His face towards those who show no sorrow for their evil, don't confess sin, reject grace, and essentially tell God, "Thanks, but no thanks" as if Christ dying on the Cross is something we as sinners can toss in the trash like junk mail.
I have been working on a book about college transition for almost two months now and I am nearly finished. One section that I have delayed writing about because of its difficulty is facing the tragedy of life honestly...neither minimizing how horrible it is for many (I really can't put myself in this lot because much of my suffering is self-induced) but also to not despair as one without hope. To keep both the reality of suffering and the reality of hope in tension, and not trying to resolve this tension flippantly by uttering something profoundly insensitive, like Job's friends, that the victims of evil somehow deserve and extra measure of tragedy. Or, just to utter, "Poor suckers."
In my book, I want to tell the story of Kevin Carter, a photographer who won the Pulitzer Prize for the photograph here . When Lina and I were in Montana, we happened to be there at the same time when an exhibition of Pulitzer Prize photographs was being hosted by the University of Montana. This picture, and others like it, made for a sad afternoon. As I learned about Kevin Carter's life and his ultimate suicide at 33, I knew that I had to tell his story as best I could because his tragic story is one jagged piece from the mirror of the broken creation.
Carter said, in his suicide note, "The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist."
The Scripture verse above assures us that our wandering are watched by God and our tears are kept by Him rather than to just evaporating into the thin air of an apathetic universe. This should give us great joy...
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