Greetings,
Word has come of the martyrdom of our dear sister and brother Mary and Lee and their two young children in Indonesia. As we / I move through Lent making our sacrifices of not eating chocolate, or giving us colas the reality of the world and the sacrifice of so many Christians around the world who are persecuted, suffer and even die every day as they live and witness for their faith. I periodically give out the “barbed wire” wrist bands of Brother Andrew’s Open Door organization to remind us of the on going cost of being a Christian in so many parts of the world.
At such times I find myself turning to the constant sources of comfort and perspective: the Psalms, John 14-17, Romans 8, and the writings of John Donne, Blake, Kazantzakis, St. John of the Cross, Lewis, and this poem by George Herbert (1593-1633). It is very thought provoking - not easy reading, but very full.
If as a flower doth spread and die,
Thou would’st extend me to some good,
Before I were by frost’s extremity
Nipt in the bud;
The sweetness and the praise were Thine;
But the extension and the room,
Which in Thy garland I should fill, were mine,
At Thy great doom.
For as Thou dost impart Thy grace,
The greater shall our glory be.
The measure of our joys is in this place,
The stuff with Thee.
Let me not languish then, and spend
A life as barren to Thy praise
As is the dust, to that which life doth tend,
But with delays.
All things are busy; only I
Neither bring honey with the bees,
Nor flowers to make that, nor the husbandry
To water these.
I am no link of Thy great chain,
But all my company is a weed,
Lord! place me in Thy concert; give one strain
To my poor reed.
Yours & His,
DED
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