Unbreakable Joy: Thoughts after a night shift

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Thoughts after a night shift

Tired... home at 6:30 a.m.

Naiveté often flees as age comes. Years ago, as a teenager, I remember thinking the world certainly has a long way to go in order to reach the awful state of the days of Noah again.
Luke 17:26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
Mat 24:37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

I don't think that anymore. It was only shortly after beginning this job that my naivety began to encounter more reality. The state of decline in our society and world is to me astounding. On this night shift, 8p-6a, my partner and I investigated an incident where an irritated man shot his neighbor's dog, the family beagle whom the victim got for his son's birthday 2 years ago.

Shortly after that incident, during a traffic stop for a simple traffic violation in Benton Harbor we arrested the driver for CCW (carrying a concealed weapon - handgun). The 22 year old South Bend resident was headed to a party and said he was only carrying it "just in case." During my contact with South Bend PD to obtain further information on this suspect and the gun, I was informed that South Bend PD was investigating 3 shootings that occurred this night. I wonder how many of those shootings involved people who also were carrying "just in case." My thoughts quickly turned to my long time friend, who was working for SBPD tonight, and who only 8 months ago was involved in a shooting himself in which his partner and the suspect were killed.

I've stopped watching the news because of it's severely depressing content. I still catch headlines in the internet news sites which abound with sad and horrific events. Discussions have occurred with my wife regarding the wisdom (if any) in keeping the tv and allowing our family to be exposed to it's increasingly depraved content.

Noah's days were undoubtedly rough. Ours are very rough as well and are no doubt heading ever more rapidly in that direction.

Total Depravity...

The recent lessons from my journaling through the book of Job are helpful to me today; God has purposes in allowing such evil. He knows what He is doing, He is never out of control, the vision of Him seen more clearly through this darkness that He allows will be well worth the suffering that we experience on this journey called life.

I am very thankful for hope. Thankful for hope to one day see the glory of Jesus' face. Thankful for hope to one day to be separated from the pain and joined to the eternal satisfaction of God. I am thankful that though I am a sinner, Christ is a great Savior. I am full of hope in the midst of this dark world because God became Man and lived in the midst of this very same darkness and then died to bear the punishment for His people, in order that they might enjoy Him for eternity. Thank God for hope...

My heart has been saddened to be exposed to this darkness, but my heart is full of joy in knowing that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life. There is a lifeboat in this down pouring rain which will no doubt result in a flood to cover the earth in filth and wretchedness. That lifeboat is Jesus and my hope is in Him.

2nd Corinthians 6:10
"Sorrowful yet always rejoicing"

1 comment:

cgl said...: A true post. We have enjoyed not having a tv as it makes more time for reading and talking but obviously we have also struggled to walk the line of living in the world. I remember the lyrics to a song by the gaither band that were along the lines of

...I'm tired of all the sin and sinfulness, gather your family, build an ark and head for the open water...

I personally think this is a horrible idea, very wrong and unbiblical, but of course some protection against the world is necessary.; December 30, 2007 at 10:22 AM

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Noteworthy Quotes

Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly so worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.
- George Mueller

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
- C.S. Lewis

A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, a spiritual man is hard on himself and easy on others.
- A. W. Tozer

Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.
- Augustine

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.
- Blaise Pascal

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
- Jim Elliot

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
- C. S. Lewis

He loves Thee too little, who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.
- Augustine

The men of this world are children. Offer a child an apple or a bank note, and he will doubtless choose the apple.
- John Newton

In the end the heart longs not for any of God's good gifts, but for God Himself. To see Him and know Him and be in His presence is the soul's final feast. Beyond this there is no quest. Words fail. We call it pleasure, joy, delight. But these are weak pointers to the unspeakable experience.
- John Piper

God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Him, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
- C.S. Lewis

It is well that we accept the hard truth now: The man who would know God must give time to Him. He must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of His acquaintance. He must give himself to meditation and prayer hours on end. So did the saints of old, the glorious company of the apostles, the Godly fellowship of the prophets and the believing members of the holy church in all generations. And so must we if we would follow in their train.
- A.W. Tozer

If God contains the fullness of all good things in Himself like an inexhaustible fountain, nothing beyond him is to be sought by those who strike after the highest good and all the elements of happiness.
- John Calvin

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.
- John Piper

God glorifies Himself toward the creature in two ways; by appearing to their understanding, and in communicating Himself to thief hearts and their rejoicing in and delighting in Him, and enjoying manifestations He makes of Himself. God is Glorified not only by His glories being seen, but by it’s being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that he might communicate and the creature receive His glory, and that it might be received both by the mind and the heart. He that testifies His idea of God’s glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.
- Jonathan Edwards