For such a short piece, it reaches wide and plumbs deep. It triggers too many thoughts to write a coherent thread. So, I'll settle for: I'm happy for you and yours. I often feel like one who climbed life's mountain. I endured times of misery and challenge, but I kept going. I achieved the peak and witnessed the true glory of it. Now several years older than you, I'm on the decent, but my heart swells with encouragement and enthusiasm for those still climbing. To keep going, day after day, will be worth more than you can imagine.
This makes me happy for you and your lady. Keep teaching and welcome home brother. Glad you made it home. As a prodigal myself I felt this and am proud of you and you writing about it so candidly. 🙏🔥
Could anyone have imagined at the time, that the Christians being torn apart limb from limb by the lions in the circus were the winning side of history? That the blood of the martyrs would swell to such a tide that empires would drown in its wake?
But they were. And we are. Though wars rage and empires fall, Christ remains and we with Him.
It struck me recently that men like Alexander and Caesar struggled mightily to be remembered forever for their deeds. I can hardly blame them. It's a very human and incredible thing.
Then Christ comes along, a humble man of low origin, and beats the thing no one else could: death.
I forget where I read it, but it was a quote similar to that idea. Somewhere along the lines of, "If we were to examine the tombs of the great men of history we would find nothing to distinguish the bones of a great man from a lowly one. Only one tomb confounds us and that is the empty one..."
Somehow we feel it instinctively, when we see death, that it's not right. That we are not meant to die, that we were made to live. Man is always trying to thwart death and live forever, he just looks in the wrong places for the spring of eternal life.
Love this. It’s funny, I just published my testimony yesterday. God has such an amazing way of working in us, even when we don’t even know it. He’s crafty like that.
The length of that note!! I couldn’t help it man. Your relatively short post hit every nail that I cherish the most, precisely on the head. Wonderful writing style, Mister.
your articles fascinate me, the cryptic illusions. unfortunately I find myself ignorant in being able to interpret them. and I guess that draws me back.
Oh my I didn’t realize you were so young! I was a grandma at 40 so 2 yrs before the towers fell. But it took me a long long time to come home to my Father too! Sometimes I can feel His arms around my neck and sometimes I feel as if we have not quite embraced yet. Orthodoxy talks about the continual process of theosis and I feel it working in me. Blessings to you my friend
That was the book that changed me, not in the "Road To Damascus" sense, not that "I was blind and now I see", but in the sense of a fork on the road that opened new possibilities, of being able to ask myself whether everything I knew might in fact be wrong.
For such a short piece, it reaches wide and plumbs deep. It triggers too many thoughts to write a coherent thread. So, I'll settle for: I'm happy for you and yours. I often feel like one who climbed life's mountain. I endured times of misery and challenge, but I kept going. I achieved the peak and witnessed the true glory of it. Now several years older than you, I'm on the decent, but my heart swells with encouragement and enthusiasm for those still climbing. To keep going, day after day, will be worth more than you can imagine.
Born in 1981, I can't imagine. I was born in 1943.
It’s the miles not the years. Haha!
....exactly. 🛣️ 💫 🛤️
Beautiful.
This makes me happy for you and your lady. Keep teaching and welcome home brother. Glad you made it home. As a prodigal myself I felt this and am proud of you and you writing about it so candidly. 🙏🔥
Love the cadence and your voice in this. Home is a good place to be.
Welcome home, my friend.
Welcome back brother. 🙏
Could anyone have imagined at the time, that the Christians being torn apart limb from limb by the lions in the circus were the winning side of history? That the blood of the martyrs would swell to such a tide that empires would drown in its wake?
But they were. And we are. Though wars rage and empires fall, Christ remains and we with Him.
It struck me recently that men like Alexander and Caesar struggled mightily to be remembered forever for their deeds. I can hardly blame them. It's a very human and incredible thing.
Then Christ comes along, a humble man of low origin, and beats the thing no one else could: death.
And somehow that just works. Breathtaking.
I forget where I read it, but it was a quote similar to that idea. Somewhere along the lines of, "If we were to examine the tombs of the great men of history we would find nothing to distinguish the bones of a great man from a lowly one. Only one tomb confounds us and that is the empty one..."
Somehow we feel it instinctively, when we see death, that it's not right. That we are not meant to die, that we were made to live. Man is always trying to thwart death and live forever, he just looks in the wrong places for the spring of eternal life.
"Only one tomb confounds us and that is the empty one."
Sounds like Chesterton?
The only True Myth
If only they knew how death has lost its sting. But some apparently do.
"You will come to a great city / that has expected your return for years"
To live each day with a purpose beyond our own is a beautiful thing.
Love this. It’s funny, I just published my testimony yesterday. God has such an amazing way of working in us, even when we don’t even know it. He’s crafty like that.
The length of that note!! I couldn’t help it man. Your relatively short post hit every nail that I cherish the most, precisely on the head. Wonderful writing style, Mister.
Have a nice Saturday.
❤️💯❤️
your articles fascinate me, the cryptic illusions. unfortunately I find myself ignorant in being able to interpret them. and I guess that draws me back.
Always feel free to ask about them! I’ll gladly explain.
Oh my I didn’t realize you were so young! I was a grandma at 40 so 2 yrs before the towers fell. But it took me a long long time to come home to my Father too! Sometimes I can feel His arms around my neck and sometimes I feel as if we have not quite embraced yet. Orthodoxy talks about the continual process of theosis and I feel it working in me. Blessings to you my friend
I suggest that you read "The Gentleman From San Francisco" by I.A. Bunin. Helpfully available here for free on the internets here and elsewhere:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44998/44998-h/44998-h.htm
That was the book that changed me, not in the "Road To Damascus" sense, not that "I was blind and now I see", but in the sense of a fork on the road that opened new possibilities, of being able to ask myself whether everything I knew might in fact be wrong.