...and hope does not disappoint

"Just as soon as we turn toward Him with loving confidence, and say, “Thy will be done,” whatever chills or cripples or enslaves our spirits, clogs their powers, or hinders their development, melts away in the sunshine of His sympathy.
… He does not free us from the pain, but from its power to dull the sensibilities;
not from the poverty and care, but from their tendency to narrow and harden;
not from calumny, but from the maddening poison of its sting;
not from disappointment,
but from the hopelessness and bitterness of thought
which it so often engenders."

-William W. Kinsley

i like this quote a lot..< 3

i just got it in an email a friend sent me
and it made me think a lot about where i am

i think itd be easiest just to pray
and ask him...to help us...not fail
itd be easy to pray
and ask to succeed

itd be easy to pray
for things not to hurt
anymore

i like that instead, this quote doesn't try to put our will above His...
it doesn't try to insist it as if we obviously know better--what pain is worth it and what isn't
as if we obviously know better
what our lives should be filled with
or look like, or definitely, definitely
precisely, and specifically be

i like that this quote looks past pain
and into the real heartbreaking thing about it
which is its ability to leave us jaded
and worn...unwilling
to hope
automated to think
its better not to feel

he dares us to be generous
even amidst our own feeling of poverty
and to care
even when everyone else
has decided
its best to be 'too cool' for it

...i had to look up calumny
but apparently it means rumors or slander
malicious and false statements
that defame the object it talks about

we're asked to remember our identity
who we are--praying against the slow poison
that the betrayal of words
or feeling of being unknown
that will otherwise tear us down
starting from the inside out

i like that we're not asked
not to fail
instead we're asked
to remember our strength
and rise above
the otherwise engulfing waves
of disappointment

we're not asked
not to fail
but we're asked
not to let ourselves be defined by them

and not to let the fear
or bitterness over that failure
keep us from hoping
and trying
once again

i like that this quote
doesn't ask
for a life
without fear
but instead reminds us
that even the most crippling of these fears

are nowhere near
as big
as the warmth and presence
of our God

...because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” – Romans 5:1-5