I have struggled this last year with my greying hair and wrinkles. I had been labouring under the misapprehension that I was not a vain person and that aging was going to come gently and easily.
This has not been the case.
I have found myself acting like an idiot while talking to sales people, or any one potentially younger than me, as I try to feign hip-ness.
And so, when I fell on the below quote while reading about Amy Carmichael, I felt a wave of rebuke from our all-knowing Eternal Father.
Raising these kids is hard. Trying to fight the devil and his attacks on my soul - harder. But the Lord has called us to it. I am not so stupid to claim that the sufferings of a first-world mother are anything to bellyache about. We are fed, clothed, protected. My prayer is just that I learn to yield my pride to the Lord and have Him change my will so that I can delight in my scars for Him.
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?
- Amy Carmichael
"For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ,
not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake."
Philippians 1:29