Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“Man’s despair is not the despair of God at all, but despair of all that is not God.
Beyond that certain despair lies Christian hope,
The certainty that God alone is enough for man.”
William McNamara
So how’s this Columbus Day Monday morning going for you?
From my perspective, things seem fine. My bride is getting ready for the day with a list of things to which she is looking forward. Our son is working on his next books, as he and his bride and girls return home. And Tulip, our rescue terrier is bounding around, without a care in the world, simply excited to see everyone she loves.
I can also tell you that the stock market is up and down, the government is in its usual state of not standing strong for what is right, families on every street are dealing with day-to-day disappointments, joys and struggles, and the Dodgers and Cardinals, Red Sox and Tigers are in the midst of playoffs for the National and American League championships, respectively, for a berth in the World Series.
But, in the midst of it all, and from all I can tell around me—despite evidences to the contrary in various pockets of our society and world—God is still on the throne.
So, what’s your perspective on things this Columbus Day 2013?
Is it rooted in a view that God would want us to have, or is it rooted in a view that we are prone to slip into when things in the world around us tend to direct our way?
In his book “The Light and the Glory” Peter Marshall says this:
“This nation was founded by God with a special calling. The people who first came here knew that they were being led here by the Lord Jesus Christ, to found a nation where men, women, and children were to live in obedience to Him…”
Interestingly, Marshall goes on to quote from a journal entitled “Book of Prophecies” written by Christopher Columbus in which Columbus writes this:
“It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel His hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures…”
In the midst of what must have been a difficult, and at times, despairing journey ending up in the Americas, Columbus maintained a perspective rooted in a belief that for him—God alone was enough.
So, how’s your perspective on this Columbus Day Monday? What will be your perspective on Tuesday? Or thereafter?
In the midst of whatever you are going through, do you find hope in today? Do you find it first—or only after there seems to be nowhere else to go?
In the midst of the ups and downs of today—and those you know you will face in your tomorrows—do you have the perspective borne in a certainty that God alone is enough for you?
If you’re anything like me, I suspect that in middle of all you go through you haven’t always felt that God alone is enough. Or maybe you did, but just didn’t feel Him in the room with you.
But in the midst of whatever—the only thing that is certain, and that will last, is also the only thing that is the best—God and God alone.
And He is always in the room.
That’s the perspective that will sustain and support you and me through whatever this world throws our way—God alone is enough, and God is there.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2013. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
