The Three Endurances ~ Closing Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

We think of the three fates, the three furies, and even the three stooges.  We like things in threes.  The foundational nature of this seems to come from our tether to a God who presents himself as three persons. 

He chooses to give us things that endure.  Throughout life we can have faith, hope, and love.  We can use these to see us through the light and darkness.  Faith protects us from that which would remove us from the narrow path that is our journey.  Hope shows us the next moment, hill, valley, or horizon.  It is love, however, that fuels it all. 

It is the love of the Father that asks us to have faith.  It is his love that holds out hope to us as a map to home.  It is love that gives us the power to forgive, repent, and give.  It is love that demands all of us all. 

I must use these things.  I must journey the path set before me with all that I am.  The endurance must come from the provision of these three endurances.  It may be that we are intended to only need these things and all else will be provided.  We shall see Dear Reader.  We shall see.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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The Three Endurances ~ The Final Endurance: Love

Greetings Dear Reader,

The reality is that love is the most powerful force in all that there is.  We do not really see it because we do not really live it.  My eldest Son calls it a barrier crushing force.  We do not think often enough about the destructive forces of love.  I think they bear addressing.

Love destroys.  It mutilates hatred.  It devours greed.  It shatters and mends the hard heart.  Like all real life it forces its way in to places where it is unwanted.  It corrodes and dissolves the iron resistance of will steeled against it.

Love consumes.  It ravenously devours selfishness and self-centeredness.  It fills every void into which it enters and leaves room only for those things which feed it or for which it is a fuel.  It will take all that you are and own it eventually. 

Love steals.  It breaks in. It destroys locks.  It tumbles every safe.  There are no secure vaults or guarded places where it cannot enter unwanted and steal away resistance and rejection.  It ferrets out every mote of the soul and demands all of it. 

Love kills.  It causes men and women to face death on foreign fields for the sake of heath and home.  It murders the selfless to protect others and even the selfish.  It consumes lives in its servitude.  It devours galley slaves to row it to its destinations.  It causes the Living God to take on flesh so that he can be hated, beaten, and nailed to wood. 

I must give everything I am to love.  If I do not it will eventually take it anyway.  I would rather be its willing slave than a conquered shell.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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The Three Endurances ~ Hope on the Long Road

Greetings Dear Reader,

In contrast to the necessity of faith being exercised in the moment; in the sprints of the journey if you will, hope must be the marathon of the run.  Again I have written about hope before but not as the fuel for endurance that we need. 

My friend, who thinks that hope is a four-letter word learned of my faith and no longer speaks to me.  My hope to bridge the space between her anger and my faith was shattered but I put back the pieces in prayer for her.  I do not demand that others believe as I do.  I do not push it on them or judge their unbelief. 

I do try to live my hope and share the faith that gives it when I am allowed.  Sometimes others take a hammer to hope that I have that is not in Christ alone.  When this happens, it wounds me deeply.  My inner voice wishes for me to reject everyone and become a hermit.  My spirit, however, demands that I regain that grasp on my hope in Christ.  It demands that my heart gather the pieces and use hope to go forth to every moment that is afforded me. 

Hope is fuel.  It is the balm that helps us rise when we fall.  It is the oil that softens a hard heart.  It is what leads me on.  It is what keeps me looking for Christ in the moment and on the horizon.  Faith is what helps me look but it is hope that drives me forward.  It is in Christ alone my hope is found and may endure. 

Pilgrims to the City of God – Michael Card

Pilgrims of passion we follow the One

Who holds out a cross and a crown

We travel a dark road that has but one Light

For we have here no lasting town

Sometimes we run by the power of His might

On our own at the best we can plod

What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight

We are pilgrims to the city of God

The stigma of strangers lost in a strange land

In a fallen world that's not our home

But we are not homeless prodigals here

Because we have someplace to go

Sometimes we run by the power of His might

On our own at the best we can plod

What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight

We are pilgrims to the city of God

Behold you have come to Mount Zion

The the City of Great King

To thousands and thousands of angels who've come

Assembled to joyfully sing, they sing

Sometimes we run by the power of His might

On our own at the best we can plod

What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight

We are pilgrims to the city of God

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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The Three Endurances ~ The Corinthian Promise

Greetings Dear Reader,

I realize that some of you could not care less about what Paul has to say to the Corinthians in his letters to them.  Whilst I respect you Dear Reader if you have no use for the New Testament I would posit that there is value there for everyone.  There are universal truths in the text that can benefit everyone.

The primary context of the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s letter is the prime mover of love.  Jesus instructed us that the greatest and second commandments are to love God and to love each other.  The promise that Paul offers is that if we do wonderful amazing things and do them without love they are worthless.

He goes on to show the qualities of love so that we know what we are to do.  He also shows us just how easily we fail at loving others.  First Corinthians 13 has a greater context.  It is written to some of the worst behaved “Christians” of that era.  Paul is policing his own not handing out judgment to those outside of the faith. 

We live in an era where those who claim to follow Christ are easy targets.  The whole is painted with the vivid scarlet letter deserved by some.  We do not police our own as we should.  We do not see to our own house first. 

Worse, we ignore the Corinthian promise.  We act for our programs and causes without love for everyone involved.  We speak against issues which involve human suffering without addressing the suffering in a practical way.  I do not care about your political stance when there are starving children.  I do not care about your social issues if you are fighting for social justice. 

I love you Dear Reader.  I also love everyone else.   I must always be aware that if I do anything without love I am nothing but a loud irritating gong driving away those who may need me the most. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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