Even when you cannot see...

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Dear Friends~

It's a rainy day, and I love days like this. The low hanging clouds, occasional lightning and bursts of rain are invigorating, and inspiring; yet somehow the dim lighting in the house makes me want to curl up on the sofa with a cup of tea. :)

Every morning and evening a small (beautiful) dove comes out to our lawn in search of food. Nearly every morning and evening I step outside with a handful of wheat and throw it out to her. The special thing about our dove though, is that her wing is painfully dragging, and I fear that it is broken. Since I have no medical knowledge concerning birds, I can't just catch the dove, break her wing again, and then set it. I'd probably hurt her more.
And yet; even though she cannot fly more than a couple feet, and her wing will probably never heal, she keeps coming. Sometimes I'll see her after especially chilly nights and she will be sitting in a spot where the sun's warming rays can reach her, and she'll fluff up her feathers and sit motionless...
Even though she will probably never truly fly again, she doesn't give up. She doesn't just sit under a bush and fall prey to depression. She doesn't watch the jounty robins as they bounce around her and fly cheerily above her and decide that it's no use. Even though everything seems to be against her; she never gives up.

As J.C Ryle puts it in his book, Holiness:

 

"I do not say for a moment that holiness

shuts out the presence of indwelling sin. No, far from it.

It is the greatest misery of a holy man that he carries about with him

a "body of death", that often when he would do good "evil is present

with him," that the old man is clogging all his movements, and,

 as it were, trying to draw him back at every step he takes. (Rom. 7:21)

But it is the excellence of a holy man that he is not at peace with

indwelling sin, as others are. He hates it, mourns over it, and longs to be free from it's company."

 

J.C. Ryle really explains it all... even though indwelling sin trips you up, and makes you stumble, don't give up! Keep striving toward holiness and becoming like Christ. One day we will be perfected!

It may look like you will never heal from a broken heart... your future may seem hidden and frightening... it may seem like you will never be able to fully embrace the beauty of a summer day...

But even when you cannot see; even when darkness is all around you, you will find that God is still lighting your path. After the darkness you will look back and see that although you did not realize it; God directed your footsteps...

                                   Don't give up; even when you cannot see.