Sufficient

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me."  2 Corinthians 12:9

When I am at my lowest, God is with me.  I may feel as if I am completely alone, utterly abandoned, and yet He never leaves me.  Even when I am faithless, God is faithful.  He is my strength when I am weak, my joy when I am desperate, my peace when I'm afraid.  Why does my heart not understand this?  I know it to be true and yet I cannot seem to rely on it as I should.  The journey is a long one.  God doesn't just wave a wand over our lives and poof everything is as it should be.  Rather, He allows us to participate in our sanctification.  It hurts.  Frankly, it sometimes stinks.  I don't always believe that He will work all things for my good and His glory though I know it to be true.  Daily I must be reminded.  Daily I have to pray.  Oh that I would say with Paul that I will  "boast all the ore gladly about my weakness" that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  I might be able to one day, though I'm not sure if it will be in this world or the next.  For now I fall at the foot of the cross, crying out that my strength is not sufficient.  Maybe that's where I always need to be.

My Five Books of 2009

I got this idea from Brian Franklin's blog and thought it was great!  These are my favorite books of 2009.  They aren't all that deep or philosophical, but I'm proud to have finished a few and the rest were just fun!  Leave your top five as well!

1.)  The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

The discussion of revenge in this book is quite interesting.

While I did not agree so much with the conclusion, I very

much enjoyed reading the story.

2.) Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

I tried reading this once in high school

and failed.  For some reason I found it 

difficult.  This time around it really made 

sense.  His practicality and theology 

are so rich.  I would recommend it to anyone

3.)  Emma by Jane Austin

With her witty dialogue and satire

Jane Austin never fails to keep my attention.

Emma had me laughing out loud almost

every time I read it.

4.)Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper

Another second timer, Don't Waste Your Life

has a lot of good things to say.  I will probably

read it again though as I was struggling with 

insomnia quite a bit this time and didn't absorb

all of it.  However, I still found it inspiring.

5.)Fer de Lance by Rex Stout

I love mysteries.  My favorite author so far 

is actually Harlan Coben, he never fails to 

shock me with the conclusion, but I just 

recently started reading about Nero Wolf,

a quite fat detective and Arche Goodwin, his

assistant.  Witty and clever, I will probably be 

reading more of Stout's works in the near

future.