Do you dare imagine

In 1654 Pascal wrote the following when he encountered Jesus.

"certitude, heartfelt joy, peace"
"joy, joy, joy, tears of joy"
"complete and sweet renunciation"
"total surrender to Jesus Christ my director"

The problem is, it seems we go through life in storms of doubt, facing problems, health issues, and unbearable pressure. One of my friends emailed me yesterday and said his grandson died in his sleep. How deeply empty and hurting my friend must feel. My friend is extremely wealthy and has everything he could possibly want. Now this! How could God permit this? But there is another way to live. The thought of knowing God, and having this huge hope of life through Jesus which overcomes so much. In fact, He (Jesus) overcomes the world.

How quickly we forget what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?" What we really want is for God to make everything the way we want it. We want things to work out, to be successful, to make it, and be healthy and strong, to have a nice car and travel, perhaps retire. We want the world our way.

I like what Crabb says in his book The Pressure's Off. He writes, "The Spirit always points to the Christ of the Bible, the One who offers no guarantees that my marriage will survive, that the biopsy will yield good news, or that I won't lose my job. The Spirit exposes a problem in my soul worse than my suffering, then reveals the God of grace. He tells me I can know this God; I can know His heart, rest in His power, and hope in His purposes. And I can see it all in Christ. He keeps stirring my heart to say, "Just give me Jesus!"