Out of Egypt:

prayer 11/2

My Jesus, I rely on you,
Author and finisher of our faith.
There is no pain You have not borne;
no pain so great You cannot bear.

Feeling encouraged today. Also feeling a bit ill though - stomach virus? I shouldn't have eaten that old parmesian cheese on Sunday night... (But it was $8 and I didn't want it to go to waste.)

Heat, weakness, tiredness, feeling vaguely nauseous - I haven't had the flu since I was a child, over 10 years ago. Bad memories of Maalox and unpleasant mid-night awakenings of my dad. Among the many things in my childhood I'm glad to have left behind.

I've changed a lot since elementary school. Of course, I'm sure all of us have - though some more than others. Who would have guessed, seeing us then, what kind of people we'd become now? Witty, responsible, well-read, outgoing, or the otherwise. Only God knows our ends at our beginnings. I wonder if that knowledge, if we had it, would make us more confident of this enterprise.

"...having signed the contract, the bad contract which we all sign, to live for 80 years and then death" - Phillip Roth, NPR interview on his book Everyman (paraphrased). "God it's good to be alive/It takes the skin right off my eyes/To think I'll have to give it up someday" - M. Ward. "For I consider the sufferings of the present time to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed" - the Apostle Paul.

I'm sorry you are feeling badly.

just to you know....
I laughed out loud when you said, "I've changed a lot since elementary school. Of course, I'm sure all of us have." I thought it was funny. If you had said high school, that would be funny, but grade school made it kind of absurd, in a good way, because it was kind of more obvious.

Thanks for the reminder about God's soveregnty. It's a good thing to remember. I need to remember it more.

Posted by: Chantel at November 2, 2006 7:31 AM