The sermon today, in which I talked about our difficult return from overseas, was a repeat. The first time I did it was about 1 month after we came back from the field. At the time, the “trial” was still very much upon me. The difficulty was still raw. But now that has faded. There is still some sadness. But I can see that good has come out of our return. It doesn’t hurt like it did before. The experience of doing a sermon about a trial that I’m no longer living through reminded me to keep a long term perspective. I’m sure I will face significant difficulty again. But—most likely—that, too, will end. The song we sang today, “God moves in a mysterious way,” has the line, “Judge not the Lord with feeble sense.” That’s a good line. How often I want to write the story of my life. I want to predict the outcome of events. Sometimes I’m optimistic and sometimes I’m pessimistic. But either way, I’m trying to interpret events that must be left up to God.
You can listen to the sermon here.
Below is a picture of William Cowper, who wrote “God moves in Mysterious ways.” To listen to a great message about his life click here: message by John Piper.
theologia viatorum 