Under, under! Get you under, O Soul!

"Contentment by Jeremiah buroughs
You find many men and women who, if they are in a good mood, will be very quiet. But this will not hold. It is not the constant tenor of their spirits to be holy and gracious under affliction.
(...)

It is free, that is, not by constraint, not, as we say, patience by force. Thus, many will say that you must be content:
“This is the hand of God and you cannot help it.” Oh, but this is too low an expression for Christians. Yet when Christians come to visit one another, they say, “Friend, you must be content.” Must be content is too low for a Christian; no, it should be, “Readily and freely I will be content.” It is suitable to my heart to yield to God and to be content.
Now a free act comes in a rational manner. That is freedom. It does not come through ignorance because I know of no better condition or because I do not know why my affliction is; but it comes through a sanctified judgment. Freedom is when I, by my judgment, see what is to be done, understand the thing; and my judgment agrees with what I understand.
(........)
Is the hand of God bringing an affliction, yet my heart is troubled and discontented? “What,” it says, “will you be above God? Is this not God’s hand, and must your will be regarded more than God’s?” O
under, under! Get you under, O soul! Keep under the authority of God, the power that God has over you! To keep under—that is to submit. The soul can submit to God at the time when it can send itself under the power, authority, sovereignty, and dominion that God has over it.

Looking back to a blessed 2018

One of the reasons why I decided to start blogging (back in early 2010s) was this ability to remember.

 I was never a great journal writer (and continue to be as terrible as back then ), never quite open with myself and able to commit secrets thoughts to paper...never able to honestly express what was on my mind. With blogging it was different...I wouldn't be under that pressure to be honest ( in the sense of telling all that it is on my mind), but I could keep an accurate sense of the reality and happenings over the years and around me...

I liked the idea of posting latest learnings, reads and despite having no desire to become " a blogger" I could always refer back and remember...mostly the Lord's 'revelations' of new Christian life concepts learnt or new things I am trying to grasps. On an occasion or two I have shared some personal happenings , again with the aim of giving context to the latest ' happenings' .

It was only today I opened this page (after reading the headlines of a Challies post on why you should stop or start blogging)  only to realise it is a whole year since I posted a single entry on this webpage! Perhaps it is a full 5 years since any meaningful interaction was held with this page...You might ask ...why bother? aren't blogs sort a thing of the past anyways? (except you are Tim Challies ofc); aren't you just over that fad that you enjoyed in your early 20s...? Aren't people on to new technologies anyways and into photos and these short snippets and power quotes these days? Who would stop to read anything more than 140 characters anyways? Yeah I get you! Totally hear you...

I will keep on blogging because it enables me to keep a memory of my pilgrimage on this earth...not in the sense that I will tell you what I am up to, or where in the world I am (yeah that has become a thing for me in these past 5 years... "travel for work" buh!  - everyone thinks it is great but no one understand how hard it is to spend a week in a hotel room by yourself...well I tend to enjoy the Lord's day when I find a good church which has been the case quite often!), but that it will give me a record of which friends I am walking with ( these past 10 years a lot of Elizabeth Prentiss, Octavious Winslow, John Newton, beloved Matthew Henry and so on...), what I am learning in the Christian life. Well, you might say... these are dead " friends" - to which I reply that in being dead they still speak - whereas the majority of people's interactions on the internet tend to give them only a thumbs up anyways. Okay, enough of my random brain...this post was meant to be about the blessings of this past year...but since my lunchtime is over...I will have to leave that to a part 2.

Adieu!
JR