Come all who are weary...

So, I'm in the throes of a cuh-razy busy week. But I just keep looking at this page hoping to see something new...and then realize that it would, um, be up to ME to make that happen...

Here's an exerpt from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis that a friend sent me today and which spoke directly to my heart because of my own aversion to humility and discipline. We were actually talking about this same thing at our weekly community group last night. The beauty and awkwardness of the gospel is that it is in my weakness that I'm made strong and Christ is glorified.

Yuck.

And, thank God.

It is not our strength but Christ’s grace which can and does accomplish such great things in us. Christ’s grace enables us to embrace warmly those things from which we naturally recoil. It is not our nature to bear the cross, to love the cross, to discipline ourselves, to avoid seeking praise, to suffer insults willingly, to think humbly of ourselves, to appear humble to others, to endure adversity and loss, and not to seek prosperity as our first goal. If you take a look at yourself, you will see that you can do none of this alone, but if you confide in the Lord, he will give you heavenly strength and all that you have chosen to do will become easier. You will not even fear your enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and sealed with the cross of Christ.