As my father-in-law, Duane, alluded to our nighttime adventures with Evelyn’s sleeplessness, I thought I’d share some notes and observations from our parish meeting last night. The subject, as God would have it, dealing with adversity.

The man who spoke and led us through discussion has had two very stressful years. Some of you readers know exactly who I mean, and I won’t go into details for everyone else, but basically several of his children are going through deep trials. He provided some Scriptures which speak of how believers should deal with adversity: Ep. 1:11, Da. 4:34-35, Ps. 135:6, Pr. 16:9,33, 21:1, and 1 Tim. 6:3. He spoke of the prosperity gospel, its mantra that godliness is gain, and the trials he faced when in a congregation that held that shallow sort of faith. He spoke of how he lost a child, his very young daughter, and in the middle of his anguish his friends tried to confront him over his hidden sins and lack of faith that had allowed death to claim his little girl. I will remember his response for a long time. With tears streaming down his face and his heart now burdened additionally with sadness for the confusion of his friends, “Do you honestly think that your shoulders are broad enough to carry your wife and children, even yourself! through this life?” If one looks at the Scriptures closely, one sees that this is not the case. As I wrote in my notes last night, the people of God, that love God, that God loves, faced so much adversity for their faith. Look at Job. Look at the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. What did Christ tell his apostles? The world hated Him. How much then would it care for those who love and worship Him?

So, we know that we’re going to face adversity and not simply because of a lack of faith. Many times we must simply learn to glorify God, or learn to see that our trial may even be for the good of someone else. Adversity is a death that will lead to resurrection. Sarah and I are not particularly torn up about Michael’s ears, or lack thereof. (We’ve often wondered if this just shows how calloused we are. Perhaps that is partly it, though I think that I’m saving up my anguish for later, when I am able to see how it will really affect him. A seven week old doesn’t have that different a lifestyle with hearing loss. ) But it will be the source of adversity, as is Evelyn’s current state. Each of these is a small death. With faith through the grace of God, we will be resurrected on the other side. We will be perfected unto good works and our children will be sanctified. With an extra large measure of God’s grace, we’ll even be instruments in the lives of others, but we’re cursed with the mindset that people that always talk about things like this are often disingenuous. I know after last night, that need not be true.

When tested, I have rarely been consistent with the doctrine of Sabbath-keeping to which I subscribe (heh, doctrines as subscriptions, how consumerish). That being said, here’s an interesting quote from St. Ignatius’s, the Apostolic Father’s, epistle to the Magnesians on Sabbath-keeping vs. keeping the Lord’s Day. The question I will answer later today, and which I ask you, is how would living like this change your life? Here’s the quote:

But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. [690. Reference is here made to well-known Jewish opinions and practices with respect to the Sabbath. The Talmud fixes 2000 cubits as the space lawful to be traversed. Philo (De Therap.) refers to the dancing, etc.] And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, “To the end, for the eighth day,”[691. Ps. vi., Ps. xii. (inscrip.). ] on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the Saviour, deny, “whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things,”[692. Phil. iii. 18, 19.] who are “lovers of pleasure, and not lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”[693. 2 Tim iii:4] These make merchandise of Christ, corrupting His word, and giving up Jesus to sale: they are corrupters of women, and covetous of other men’s possessions, swallowing up wealth[694. Literally, “whirlpools of wealth.”] insatiably; from whom may ye be delivered by the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ!

EDIT: My doctrine of the Sabbath, at least the one I purport to hold, is that the Sabbath shifted to the first day of the week with the resurrection. If I were asked to formulate my own doctrine, I would probably say something a bit more like what St. Ignatius said in the above-quoted epistle. However, I subscribe to my church’s doctrine that Sunday is the Sabbath and should be treated with the respect shown it during the Old Testament/Covenant. Now, if one were to examine my life, he would see that except for on a few occasions, my Sundays are filled with church, dozing, eating, and watching TV. There is a little more family time than usual, but, in all, it doesn’t measure up to how a Sabbath should be spent. So, if I were to follow the wisdom of the most reverend Ignatius, on Sundays, I would probably cut the television and be a bit less hokey when I am with my family. I’d also encourage my family to extend their circle of fellowship. On Saturdays, I’d resume the theological study that Sarah and I once hosted and spend a great deal more time in prayer and meditation (how does one teach an infant to meditate?). This would mean that I’d have to be more productive during the week so that I would not be any more tardy in my chores than I am, but that really is not hard. My weeks are generally very unproductive.

The deputy editor of Slate magazine, a lax Jew, grows terrifically bored during a bat mitzvah and opens the Torah at random, reads the story of the rape of Dinah and then decides to read the Bible for the first time and blog his experience.

Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thy image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, bishop and doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Here’s a thought for today from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest:

I may have a right conception of God, and that may be the very reason why I do not do my duty. But wherever there is vision, there is a life of rectitude because the vision imparts moral incentive.

I’m not the one to expound on that, but if you have the book, be sure to read and meditate on the rest of today’s devotional.