too much life

since grama has been down with a very painful back, sitting at the computer has become something of a guilty luxury. however, there are wonderful things about which thoughtful prose should be written...from sources as disparate as Jim Cymbala and Henri Nouwen.
Read some of their work recentlym on a wonderful vacation trip that began with a fabulous surprise: all my sons in the same place at once! they gave me amazing gifts, but the biggest one is and will always be, their presence.
Regardless of the disparity of labels between the two mentioned above, the message is the same one-- but dressed in very different robes. Nouwen has such a gift for putting into coherency things which you've always known in your deepest soul...and Jim Cymbala's story is that God uses the weak things of the world to defy the things that percieve themselves as wise, accepted and right.
Being desperate for God will beat out great theology, terrific education and even talent...because the weak, the losers, the unable, the disabled (as Nouwen would also say) are those who understand where the source of their joy, their strength and their peace lie. they are willing to give God the glory He is due when the worldly "success" which others mark in their lives is noted and publishers come with flattering words to see if they can make a dollar off the stories.
ok. won't even start to go on that tack.

back to the point: it is the smallest, the weakest, the most insignificant persons who are able to see that whatever great things happen through or in front of them, are due to the fact that GOD is able and that these things happened only because they were too stupid to tell God NO. Instead of relying on their abilities, education, status, etc. they simply relied on HIM. We're prone to tell God all the reasons why WE have a better idea, why WE should be GOD and not HIM: however, when we're too stupid to tell God such things and simply do what He asks, that's called "obedience."
It's not rocket science; rather it's the very thing that makes rocket scientists (and all others whose egos are tied to their performance, their worldly goods or gains or abilities) quite nervous. Because if someone who has no qualifications, no ability can do great exploits, that means (ouch) that all my work to BE SOMEBODY has liklely had the effect of destroying my ability to let God BE through me.
ok, enough for now. the final word? in a free fall back to the eighties, "DARE TO BE STUPID" when it comes to obeying God. He will astound you with what HE can do when you dare to get out of His way and do what He says!