"All of you, every one of you--will pass through a time when you will face despair. If you never face despair, you will never have faced, or become a Christian, or known a Christian life. To be a Christian you must face and accept the life that Christ faced and lived; you must enjoy things as he enjoyed things; be as happy as he was at the marriage at Canaan, know the peace and happiness that it means to be in harmony with God and God's will. But you must also know, as he did, what it means to be alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, to feel that all your friends have forsaken you, that those you love and trust have turned away from you, and that God himself has forsaken you. Hold on then to the belief that that is not the end. If you love, you will suffer, and if you do not love, you do not know the meaning of a Christian life." (166-7)*To be fair, Christie is recalling something that a teacher said once during a lesson--a math lesson. But it's definitely worth quoting!!! She adds, "It is odd that those few words, more than any sermon I have ever heard, remained with me, and years later they were to come back to me and give me hope at a time when despair had me in its grip."
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
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