Ryall.info

I didn’t really know who would appreciate these thoughts, so I sent them to everyone I could think of at Suffolk Road Church

- for those of you who I don’t get to talk to much about God, it might be good for you to hear some of the things I believe! - of course, feel free to comment below or email any thoughts of questions to me, chris@ryall.info.

3 posts on the Internet struck me today, and I think that you might be encouraged & nourished by them as well.

Firstly, a simple, powerful Puritan prayer called the Valley of Vision which I hadn’t heard before and someone has modernised slightly.

O Love Beyond Compare,
You are good when you give,
when you take away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when night gathers over me.

You have loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love redeemed my soul;
You love me still,
in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.

Your goodness has been with me during another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness,
in retreat helping me to advance,
when beaten back making sure headway.

Your goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
With you as the blessed Pilot of my future as of my past.

I bless you that you have veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.
If you have appointed storms of tribulation,
you will be with me in them;
If I have to pass through storms of persecution and temptation,
I shall not drown;
If I am to die,
I shall see your face the sooner;
If a painful end is to be my lot,
grant me grace that my faith will not fail;
If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
I can make no stipulation;
Only glorify yourself in me whether in comfort or trial,
as a chosen vessel suitable always
for your use.

Seemed like a wonderful way to start the new year. Hat Tip to http://www.challies.com/archives/general-news/your-goodness-will-be-with-me.php

Secondly, a sermon I read, and you can listen to, called Pray Like This: Hallowed Be Your Name. It is quite simple, but should provide some encouragement to those of you who will be at the prayer service on Sunday evening, who heard Ken & Chris’ powerful testimony on Sunday, receive Judy’s vital and much valued prayer emails, or just love (or struggle with) praying. It explains the what, where and why to pray. http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2007/2549_Pray_Like_This_Hallowed_Be_Your_Name/

And finally, the same preacher as above shares 10 Resolutions for Mental Health. Which rather than being self reflective encourage us to focus on God’s majesty, splendour and beauty to remind us of his power, strength and purposes for us. The resolutions are from an English Literature professor inspired by CS Lewis. http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/976/

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”

8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, “fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.