Helpful Bible Verses

I Thessalonians 5:14-21
"... encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and everyone else.
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not put out the Spirit's fire;... Test everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil."

This seems to be really good advice for my year here, and for life-- especially the middle part. If i can always be joyful, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances, i think i'll be doing extremely well. It's easy to be joyful and to give thanks when things are going well, or when things are easy. But when we struggle or when we're doubting God or ourselves, or when things really seem to suck, i think we need to acknowledge these challenges as opportunities for growth and transformation, and give thanks for them and be grateful. These times are just like a tattoo-- yeah, they hurt like hell when we're going through them, but we can get something really beautiful out of them. And it might not even have to be that drastic. Maybe we don't have to give thanks and be joyful when we're suffering. But if, in those times, we can find something, anything to be thankful for, we'll be doing pretty well. For instance. even though i was struggling and feeling really afraid and alone the other day, I went for a run and used that as a way of giving thanks for the miracle of this body that i've been blessed with (which is certainly not to say that i have a particularly astonishing physique. the human body is just an amazing pieceof machinery). and giving thanks for something is much better than thinking that everything is crap.
and i really like the advice "Test everything. Hold onto the good." Here, we're encouraged to push our limits, try new things, take chances. Don't stick with what you know to be safe. Be willing to try anything. But only hold onto the good. Pretty good advice, i think.

2 Corinthians 4:6-something
"For God, who said, "Let light shine out of the darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars ofclay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God, and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."

I love the image of the jars of clay. none of us is a suitable or worthy vessel for God's message and love. None of us is deserving of God's unconditional love. Whenever I think i'm not good enough or strong enough to really follow Christ, I'm right- I'm not. But that's the mystery of grace. Even though we are flawed and broken and completely undeserving, God still fills us with his light and love and trusts us to bear these gifts to other flawed, broken people. And it's the idea of Bonhoeffer's "God at the gaps"-- where we fall short is where God is manifest in our lives. But this is a costly grace; it costs us nothing less than our lives and our selves. To live in Christ and to accept God's grace fully is to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. When Jesus called the first disciples, "Come, follow me," they left their nets behind-- their jobs, livelihoods, families, identities, selves-- and followed him. And we're all called to do the same-- to leave our selves behind and follow Christ, even to the cross (why else would we have to carry them with us on this journey?). and only then, once we are willing to give our whole selves and our whole lives to God-in-Christ, have we fully accepted this costly grace.