Old email, old friend...

I was cleaning out my Inbox today (obviously a busy day at work), when I came across the following quote from dear Lil' Kim (love how you keep coming up in my blog while many miles away). I have yet to read the book, or anything from the author for that matter, but I intend to.

"Our cup is often so full of pain that joy seems completely unreachable. When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. The sorrow overwhelms us, makes us throw ourselves on the ground, face down, and sweat drops of blood. Then we need to be reminded that our cup of sorrow is also our cup of joy and that one day we will be able to taste the joy as fully as we now taste the sorrow...Jesus' unconditional yes to this Father had empowered him to drink his cup not in passive resignation but with the full knowledge that the hour of his death would also be the hour of his glory...Joys are hidden in sorrows! We keep forgetting this truth and become overwhelmed by our own darkness. We easily lose sight of our joys and speak of our sorrows as the only reality there is. We need to remind each other... that precisely what causes us sadness can become the fertile ground for gladness... Because only when we fully realize that the cup of life is not only a cup of sorrow but also a cup of joy will we be able to drink it."

In Can You Drink the Cup? by Henri Nouwen

Where is our resolve??

resolve (def): to come to a definite or earnest decision about; (music) to progress from a dissonance to a consonance; firmness of purpose or intent

Over the past several weeks, I have been reading through Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions, and examining his fervor and passion as a means to then evaluate my own. It has caused me to even consider the idea of having "resolutions", an idea we minimize to New Years' attempts to lose weight, watch less tv, or finally quit eating so much ice cream (oh that it may NEVER be!). But looking at the definition of resolve, there is much more gravity placed on the idea of making a resolution. It implies (in my observation) that there is some deep desire, whole-hearted passion, fervor, and zeal for that thing we resolve to do. A desire to bring harmony, meaning to things (which is why I love the musical definition).

So here are a few (ok several) of his resolutions that I really resonated with. Go read them. Old guys always articulate things far better.

#6: Resolved to live with all my might, while I do live.
#8: Resolved to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others...
#22: Resolved to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of or can bring myself to exert in any way that can be thought of.
#25: Resolved, to examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is which causes me in the least to doubt the love of God--and to direct all my forces against it.
#28: Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
#43: Resolved, never henceforward, 'til I die, to act as if I were in any way my own, but entirely and altogether God's.
#48: Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul that I may know whether I have truly and interest in Christ or not, that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of.
#49: Resolved that this never shall be, if I can help it.
#53: (my current personal favorite) Resolved to improve every opportunity when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in Him, and consecrate myself wholly to Him--that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.
#64: resolved, when I find those "groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26) of which the Apostle speaks, and those "breakings of soul for the longing it hath" (Psalm 119:20) of which the Psalmist speaks, that I will promote them to the utmost of my power, and that I will not be weary of earnestly endeavoring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness.


Even reading those few words reveals in me a significant lack of resolve, of deep, earnest, life-changing, whole-hearted, sacrificial determination to do everything in my might for the glory of Christ, for that singular purpose I claim my life to be for.

Resolved, to daily run, war, plead for the things that get me more of Jesus, and to fight earnestly against those that do not, all the while considering my brothers and sisters as greater than myself, and diligently fighting for them in the same vein.

Our problem is not too much passion, but far too little.