Tag: strength

COMFORT

Posted on by Olaf

What does the word ‘comfort’ mean to you?  To some, it means a lovely handsome slice or two of cake!  For others, it’s going to be booking a holiday, getting the pay bonus, soaking in a long hot bath or perhaps resorting to the bottle.  One list of the top ten comforts taken abroad includes tea bags, slippers, tomato sauce, your own pillow, a dressing gown and a photo of a pet!  Maya Angelou had a very hard life but said this: ‘The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken’.  No doubt we all have our own lists but these are all comforts for the body which have a temporary value.  How about the comfort we need for the soul? 

  •  ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy’ – Martin Luther King

just CLINGING ON

Posted on by Olaf

Sometimes it seems that your faith is hanging on by a thread as life falls apart – a spouse deserts you, an illness is diagnosed, a loved one dies.  It can be as sudden as one of those tragedies that hits you out of the blue or it can be a sustained ‘East Wind’ prevailing against you – lack of support from church, loneliness in your faith, depression.

Despite strong roots, a tree can be bent sideways by prevailing winds – and yet, they can still hold on.  A limpet will cling on, but one sudden tap from a seagull when it’s not prepared and it’s history.  If you’re reading this, you may identify more with the tree than the limpet.  God seems to allow ‘prevailing winds’ into our lives of many sundry kinds but they do shape us.  Take Jacob – using sleight of hand to deceive he was always on the move, suffering family traumas and personal insecurity, he learnt to sleep using a rock as a pillow!  

Beautiful Grace

Posted on by Olaf

Grace has a beauty that is found in the most surprising places – especially in weakness and fragility.

'When we say yes to the grace of God, we are learning how to die' – Joni Eareckson Tada

If you are between a rock and a hard place, it’s there that the beauty of grace can flourish: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Corinthian 12:9)