From a friend:

From a young Jew (unknown) on the wall of the Warsaw ghetto

“I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine. I believe in love, even if I do not feel it. I believe in God, even if I do not see him”

as recorded by Hans Kung, in “Reforming the Church today, keeping Hope Alive

“Evil in the world today” (Victorian Baptist Witness, March 2001)

“Never once in the gospels does Jesus say “I have explained the world” What is said is “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) In spite of life’s contradictions, through faith in Him who overcame the world, we too can overcome it.

BE WITH ME TODAY, LORD “Every day I need you Lord but this day especially. I need some extra strength to face whatever is to be. This day more than any day, I need to feel you near tp fortify my courage and to overcome my fear. By myself I cannot meet the challenge of the hour. And so dear Lord, I pray, hold by trembling hand and be with me today.”

A BUTTERFLY

A Butterfly

“A man found a cocoon for a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and deformed wings.

It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the small opening of the cocoon are God`s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.

If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, that would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. Not only that, we could never fly.”