On Loneliness

I've been re-reading some of my most favorite books this Summer, and finally came around to Elisabeth Elliot's "Passion and Purity". Oh how I forgot just how very much of a deep read it is.
Before even finishing the Forward, I found myself saying "Amen" and laughing and crying along with the pages. In some ways, I had resigned myself to thinking that I was alone in the way I thought. That is not true. And I am not alone.
In the midst of parts of when it feels my heart is being torn in two, that is not the case. This is not given to me to overcome me, but to refine me.
"Even when I am feeling most alone...can I be 'full of joy, here and now'? Yes. That is what the Bible says. That means it must be not only true, but possible, and possible for me.
Taken in the right spirit year very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us." (Romans 5:3-5)
"The effect of my troubles depends not on the nature of the troubles themselves but on how I receive them. I can receive them with both hands in faith and acceptance, or I can rebel and reject."
How do I receive disappointments when they seem especially full of sting?
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"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
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Depression or acceptance.
Rejection or faith.
Herein lies my choice.
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo