“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment” (Proverbs 18:1, New English Version).
We're supposed to be out there, mixing and in the world, working, engaging, struggling! It is the way of maximum health and ADVANTAGE to ourselves.
I ran across these words by Paul Tournier: "The example furnished by Jesus Christ is a striking one. He never looks back when once He has set His hand to the plow."
I remember my dad remarking that the Lord's life got harder toward the end – just for a little bit there – but the consummation was (and can be) EVERYTHING. It can have results that MATTER for years to come.
A woman I was counseling is the mother of six adopted children. One of her daughters was then in adolescence and, after a lifetime of her mother pouring love into her, was now rejecting her – with very hateful remarks. "Take your breath" kind of stuff.
By the way, speaking of such rejections, Isaac Watts was rejected by a woman whom he proposed to (merely over his LOOKS), if you can imagine. Isaac Watts!, who wrote over 700 profound hymns of the faith, re-wrote the Psalms three times in various verse-rhythms, because he had lived in them so thoroughly, and preached like an angel from heaven itself, holding thousands in the palm of his hands, or rather the embrace of his words – all of whom, we can be SURE, were OBLIVIOUS to his looks. That woman HAD to have been a simpleton :) But it was from THAT personal pain that he grew his emerging profundities.
Add to this picture the power of a parent (and/or a grandparent, a sibling, etc.). Our prayers don’t have an expiration date, a shelf life; they’re not timebound; they were symbolically embodied in the incense rising from the altar in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. The prayers of a righteous person are efficacious. They can even lay down the runway for successful turnarounds. There are mind-boggling connections in the spiritual realm that we all have with one another.
NOTHING, absolutely nothing, is a waste if we are His!
