Philippians 1:6 | itsawonderfilledlife

Posts Tagged ‘Philippians 1:6’

Keep On

Posted in life, The Hubby, WONDER, tagged adrenaline, give up, Hebrews 12:1-3, hide, keep on, Perseverence, Philippians 1:6, Thomas Edison on October 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

It had been a ~~day~~ week. One in which I was tired, cranky, depressed and hopeless. It was … a week.

As I sat down in front of my technology to try to clean up my email inbox, I was sighing with my lungs, and calculating how many hours until I could go to bed with my mind. The thought of crawling under the warm and safe blankets of my bed was the most appealing future I could desire. All I really wanted to do was hide and sleep.

I noticed a blogger friend had a new post, so I opened it up. She wrote about being a writer, and the question, did she want to be a writer or did she want to have written. Basically, she was asking herself, am I a writer yet (to which I, one of her avid readers, would say, “honey, you ARE a writer”). I could relate to her question, about writing, and about other aspects of my life.

Then I noticed the following video also in my inbox:

Perseverence

“Now we know another thing that won’t work. That’s progress!”
Thomas Edison

My hubby would tell you (accurately) that my lifespan of interest in pretty much anything is three years … tops! Perseverance is not my gift. Thankfully commitment is something that I am gifted for, and it covers a multitude of my non-persevering flaws.

I need to remember the value of persevering, of keeping on in what I am doing, even when it might seem that I am failing miserably. I need to remember that adrenaline highs are not to be expected at all times, and that sometimes our perceived lows are the times when we are learning to maturely just keep going, because if we stop, we might miss the highest height of our experience yet!

Our persevering is a model of integrity, of commitment, of faith in “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion (until the day of Christ Jesus” Philippians 1:6).

I really like how Hebrews 12:1-3, especially here from The Message, nails it so well”

^“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!“

And so I will persevere, I will keep on, focusing not on the race, but the finish line.

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Remembering what is Forgotten

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged Forgetting, memory loss, Philippians 1:6, Remembering on November 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Dinner out with a sweet pair was a great way to spend an evening. We shared laugh after countless laugh. We shared stories of great celebration, and great sorrow. We listened to each others hopes for the future, and even each others fears. It was delightful.

They are a pair of old friends, whose friendship goes back to years when she taught piano to his children. Now they are eighty-eight and ninety years, and they enjoy the company of each other immensely. It is good that they have a history together, because she is getting forgetful … very forgetful.

There were times in our evening when I answered the same question of this lovely lady two or three times, within only a five minute period of time. Each time I worked hard to answer it for her, as though for the first time. It broke my heart as she not only was struggling with remembering, but also was aware that she was forgetful. That awareness seemed to intensify the angst of her struggle. She was confused by her confusion.

It amazed me how sharp was her memory of the distant past. The longer back in her history that our conversation went, the more she remembered, and the greater her confidence in the details of those memories, and in herself. So, we kept much of the evening conversation to that comfortable past.

I do not understand the intricacies of memory loss. I do not understand why memory loss seems to affect more recent events than those of the distant past. All I know is that the person in that body is still, somewhere deep inside, that same person. Although they might not know where they are, or who they are with, or who they are, they are still in there.

It must hurt terribly to be a loved one of someone who does not remember you, but I do believe it is more frightening still to be that forgetting person. The look of confusion and of being mentally lost is one that rips the heart in two.

Periodically, throughout our evening of laughter, this dear lady would look at me and say “I don’t think I know you, but there is something about you that is special.” I would assure her that is was that we are kindred spirits, who both hate boring people and love to laugh. I think though it is even more than that. I think that our shared love of God has knit us together, and memories are nothing compared with dreams of what is to come, when those dreams include an eternity with the one “who began the good work within you, (and) will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6

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