I have lived in exile from the world many years but it didn’t seem so strange when Bill was here with me. I’m still adapting to this reality. But Christ is closer than ever all the same… the presence of the seedbed.com online community helps …the people there I share in banded community with help.
Isn’t it amazing how this manner of reading and immersion in the Word can bring such peace while also separating one further and further from the world’s opinions of what is important? Thank you, God, for your faithful servants who provide the encouragement and challenge many need.
Bill made me laugh. He made me smile just by being himself. My work with the brokenness of others daily could become a burden but I have to depend upon Christ to bear it…. and I had Bill to help set that boundary in the physical between their lives and mine. To provide respite from the closeness of all their pain pressing in on me …. some of it very vile and entrenched that takes months of digging in the Word together to break through…. talk about the aptness of metaphor heard of dental cleaning plague off with metal scrapers! It’s hard work mentally and emotionally some days. More exhausting than digging trenches.. As all in ministry know. We have to lean into and onto the yoke with Christ ourselves knowing that it is ALL Christ carrying the load as it would be far too much for us alone.
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” — Charles Spurgeon