This year has been ROUGH. I felt like I mounted a wild bull on Jan, 1 2016 and it's been bucking like a mad cow ever since. It's actually been a rough several years. For that reason that other day I was thinking to myself, 'it would be so nice if 2017 was a good or even great year.' There's almost nothing (outside of a great vacation), that I would want to repeat of this past year. But I got to thinking also, that the things I've gained and the fruit from hardship I would not want to lose. And I was reminded of this poem by Amy Carmichael:
From pray’r that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From falt’ring when I should climb high’r,
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
|
|
From subtle love of softening things, From easy choices, weakenings, (Not thus are spirits fortified, Not this way went the Crucified), From all that dims Thy Calvary, O Lamb of God, deliver me. |
