The point is, today's tea can be found in a yellow mug with white polka dots. For the record, this mug was part of my husband's collection, not mine :) And the tea shimmers. It is called "Glitter and Gold" and as such has a slight sparkle to it. And my cat is enjoying the comfort of my lap and arms as I attempt to write.
Believe it or not I tell you all of this for a reason. As I sat down with my drink and watched the glint of gold in my cup, the line "All that is gold does not glitter" run through my head. I knew it was from a Tolkien poem, but couldn't remember the rest of it. So I looked it up and am going to share it with you.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
And the only word the arose in my mind after reading this was "Hope." While this is a prophecy about Aragorn, Tolkien's words still ring true. Throughout the Lord of the Rings, things seem to go from bad to worse. There is betrayal, danger, loss, grief, and the world falls deeper and deeper into darkness. Hope appears to be lost. This makes me think of the last post I wrote. Where I think of the people I know who struggle. Who go through those times where it seems like they have no hope. Where nothing glitters and all is lost.
I also think the reason this struck me was because it also tied in with the podcast I was listening to on my run this morning. It was called "Praying our Fears." I have heard it before, but couldn't remember the details, so I decided to listen again.
He is looking at Psalm 3, which David wrote when he was running into some issues with his son Absalom (Absalom declares himself king, he tries to kill his father... it's a pretty horrible time for David). Here is the psalm:
1 Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”[b]
3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4 I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7 Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8 From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
David is at his lowest at this time; he is in a pit of fear and darkness. Keller says that from verse three on, there are four things David does: follow your thread, relocate your glory, see the substitute, remember the people. Don't worry, I'm not going to go into depth on each of these, but I just want to show you were my mind is at right now.
In verse three it says that the Lord is a shield around him. According to commentaries, there are two types of shields this could be referring to. One is a small shield that is on your arm. You use it to defend a blow and then you can return a blow with your other hand. But this wouldn't form a shield AROUND you. It's too small. Keller says the other type of shield is the kind you have probably seen in movies. It is about the size of a door and wraps around your entire arm.
Do you know what the purpose of this kind of shield is? It isn't to be used to sit back and watch a battle rage. This is the kind of shield you use when you are following your general in to besiege a city or fortress. In other words, this is the kind of shield you use when you are about to head into the most dangerous kind of danger.
So what David is saying here is this: in the first two verses of the psalm he confesses his fear. He tells God he is afraid. And then he says "BUT you, Lord, are a shield around me." He isn't saying "I'm scared but I know You won't let anything bad happen to me." Instead, David is saying "I'm scared, but I know you often take me into danger. And I know You have a shield around me, but that shield will only work if I follow You and move forward. I know that no matter how bad things are, You're going to somehow work good things in my life. You're not going to shield me from arrows and pain and danger, but you're going to shield me in them."
Keller then references George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin.
*Just so you know, I am madly in love with George MacDonald (don't tell my husband). My cousin and I have discussed what we call our "favourite sexy theologians." She is more of a Dietrich Bonhoeffer fan, while I totally would have been a MacDonald groupie. I have read several of his works and so for Keller to reference him in a message I was already really getting into was a pretty big deal.*
He talks about how the story has a princess and the goblins are trying to get her. She happens upon her grandmother (who she has never met), and asks how to deal with this threat. The grandmother gives her a ring with a string attached to it and tells the princess that if she is in danger, she should take off the ring, put it under the pillow, and pull it tight, and the thread will lead her. But the grandmother warns her that it might take her in a roundabout way.
When night falls and the princess finds herself in danger, she does this and the ring starts to lead her out of the room. But it ends up taking her outside to the mountain. And then into the mountain. And the mountain is where the goblins live. It takes her into darkness and pits and eventually to a pile of rocks. At this point the princess wants to give up. She cries. She feels forsaken by her grandmother who she thought loved her. Then she thinks that she can at least follow the thread backwards and get back home. But when she turns around, the thread has disappeared. It only leads forward.
The princess lost hope.
We all deal with our own hurts. Our own sufferings. Our own pains. And for whoever you are and wherever you are at that pain is huge and can be overwhelming. When I was dating my husband it was two years of long distance. And that was hard. It doesn't compare to those who are married and have to deal with distance. Or with those who are single and feel alone and rejected. But for me and where I was at, it was hard. When my mom had cancer, it hurt. It also didn't compare to those who have lost people to cancer. But for us and for where we were, it felt like hell.
And God doesn't promise us that we won't feel those pains. He leads us through arrows and spears. Through sorrow and suffering. It can be hard to not lose hope. But we must keep our eyes on Him.
And because I don't feel like I can reference Tolkien, Keller, and MacDonald, and not mention CS Lewis, I'm going to end this post off with some quotations from his work A Grief Observed which he wrote while grieving the death of his wife. I leave you with those because I think they summarize my thoughts better than I ever could.
“We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”
“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.”
1 Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”[b]
3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4 I call out to the Lord,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side.
7 Arise, Lord!
Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8 From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people.
David is at his lowest at this time; he is in a pit of fear and darkness. Keller says that from verse three on, there are four things David does: follow your thread, relocate your glory, see the substitute, remember the people. Don't worry, I'm not going to go into depth on each of these, but I just want to show you were my mind is at right now.
In verse three it says that the Lord is a shield around him. According to commentaries, there are two types of shields this could be referring to. One is a small shield that is on your arm. You use it to defend a blow and then you can return a blow with your other hand. But this wouldn't form a shield AROUND you. It's too small. Keller says the other type of shield is the kind you have probably seen in movies. It is about the size of a door and wraps around your entire arm.
Do you know what the purpose of this kind of shield is? It isn't to be used to sit back and watch a battle rage. This is the kind of shield you use when you are following your general in to besiege a city or fortress. In other words, this is the kind of shield you use when you are about to head into the most dangerous kind of danger.
So what David is saying here is this: in the first two verses of the psalm he confesses his fear. He tells God he is afraid. And then he says "BUT you, Lord, are a shield around me." He isn't saying "I'm scared but I know You won't let anything bad happen to me." Instead, David is saying "I'm scared, but I know you often take me into danger. And I know You have a shield around me, but that shield will only work if I follow You and move forward. I know that no matter how bad things are, You're going to somehow work good things in my life. You're not going to shield me from arrows and pain and danger, but you're going to shield me in them."
Keller then references George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin.
*Just so you know, I am madly in love with George MacDonald (don't tell my husband). My cousin and I have discussed what we call our "favourite sexy theologians." She is more of a Dietrich Bonhoeffer fan, while I totally would have been a MacDonald groupie. I have read several of his works and so for Keller to reference him in a message I was already really getting into was a pretty big deal.*
He talks about how the story has a princess and the goblins are trying to get her. She happens upon her grandmother (who she has never met), and asks how to deal with this threat. The grandmother gives her a ring with a string attached to it and tells the princess that if she is in danger, she should take off the ring, put it under the pillow, and pull it tight, and the thread will lead her. But the grandmother warns her that it might take her in a roundabout way.
When night falls and the princess finds herself in danger, she does this and the ring starts to lead her out of the room. But it ends up taking her outside to the mountain. And then into the mountain. And the mountain is where the goblins live. It takes her into darkness and pits and eventually to a pile of rocks. At this point the princess wants to give up. She cries. She feels forsaken by her grandmother who she thought loved her. Then she thinks that she can at least follow the thread backwards and get back home. But when she turns around, the thread has disappeared. It only leads forward.
The princess lost hope.
We all deal with our own hurts. Our own sufferings. Our own pains. And for whoever you are and wherever you are at that pain is huge and can be overwhelming. When I was dating my husband it was two years of long distance. And that was hard. It doesn't compare to those who are married and have to deal with distance. Or with those who are single and feel alone and rejected. But for me and where I was at, it was hard. When my mom had cancer, it hurt. It also didn't compare to those who have lost people to cancer. But for us and for where we were, it felt like hell.
And God doesn't promise us that we won't feel those pains. He leads us through arrows and spears. Through sorrow and suffering. It can be hard to not lose hope. But we must keep our eyes on Him.
And because I don't feel like I can reference Tolkien, Keller, and MacDonald, and not mention CS Lewis, I'm going to end this post off with some quotations from his work A Grief Observed which he wrote while grieving the death of his wife. I leave you with those because I think they summarize my thoughts better than I ever could.
“We were promised sufferings. They were part of the program. We were even told, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I hadn't bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”
“God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down.”
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