Philippians 4:11b-12 — I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
I Timothy 6:7-9 — We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
From the 1989 television mini-series Lonesome Dove: Lorena said, “I never got so down before.” Gus replied, “That’s because back in Lonesome Dove you weren’t expecting anything. Then Jake came along and got your hopes up and that’s your problem. You got hope. Life in San Francisco (where she dreamt of going) is still just life. To be happy is to learn to like the little everyday things.”
From Wendell Berry’s Hannah Coulter: “He was a gentle, good-natured man, because he hoped for little and settled for less and took his satisfactions where he could find them.”
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Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
Without a hurt the heart is hollow… try to remember.
–From the song “Try to Remember” in the 1960 musical The Fantasticks.
“The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief. But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.”
–Grief Counselor Hilary Stanton Zunin
I John 4:8 — Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
II Timothy 2:3 — Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
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In December of 1862 Abraham Lincoln wrote this touching letter of condolence to the daughter of his long-time friend, William McCullough, who earlier that month had been killed in a Civil War battle in Mississippi. Lincoln’s mother died when he was a child, and his son Willie died earlier in 1862, so he also had “experience enough” with grief, as he wrote.
Dear Fanny, It is with deep grief that I learn of the death of your kind and brave Father… In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say; and you need only to believe it, to feel better at once. The memory of your dear Father, instead of an agony, will yet be a sad sweet feeling in your heart, of a purer and holier sort than you have known before.
II Corinthians 1:3-5 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
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A lady was in the hospital with a badly broken leg, and ahead of her was a long and painful recovery. Yet, she was still in such good spirits that one visitor was prompted to ask, “Aren’t you angry at God for letting this happen to you? Don’t you wonder why He allowed this suffering? You are such a good person, and if God is God, He should have been able to prevent this.”
She replied, “For heaven’s sake, no, I am not angry at God. Why should I be? How should I know what God is doing and not doing in the world? All I know is God loves me and I broke my leg.”
An old saint of the congregation was dying, and he was asked how he handled the fact that God was allowing him to die despite the prayers of hundreds of people for his healing. He said, “When I am in the presence of Almighty God, Creator of the universe, it would be quite unbecoming of me to be demanding anything.”
It is one thing to pray to God with urgency and desperation, to even weep with anguish and plead for relief. God has even commanded that we do so. Jesus himself prayed with such emotion in the Garden of Gethsemane. But it is quite another thing to demand that the will of the almighty God be one with our own.
Matthew 26:36-39 — Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
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Dear Father, give us our daily bread, pleasant times, and good health. Protect us from war, disease, and drought. And if you would tempt us a bit by withholding your blessings for a while, then may your will be done. And when my time is up and my hour has come, deliver me from all evil by bringing me to your heavenly home. And if my time is not yet up, give me strength and patience. Amen.
–Martin Luther
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