Sunday Morning Contemplations

I woke up late this morning. Yesterday was a long day. Up at 6 and to bed around midnight. I was so depressed all day and by bedtime, I was exhausted. When I woke up this morning, actually Mike called to ask about church, my neck was killing me and I couldn't get up. I think I rolled over and was sleeping on my left side. That is always a bad thing for the neck.

I feel bad cause if I don't go he has no way to go. But I was truly miserable. When I finally got up, I found I also have a kink in my back and I have no idea where that came from. I got up at 10:30 and made my way to the kitchen via the bathroom to find the coffee pot. You would think I was a hundred the way I move some days.

The sun was shinning and I raised the umbrella on the patio because it shades the dinning room windows my table sits. As I was drinking coffee and eating breakfast, I was reading a devotional I keep on my table. I've mentioned this book before in previous posts. "Streams in the Desert". It is one I've had for many years. Actually, the current copy is the second copy I bought over 10 years ago. The first I found at a second hand shop in South Carolina nearly 25 years ago. I used it faithfully during a time of great difficulty. It was a tremendous help.

The current copy also contains a second devotional by the same author called "Springs in the Valley". I remember when I found it in the local bookstore I was thrilled because the original I had was so old and the pages brittle! I gave that to my aunt. I don't know if she still has it or not. I usually read both daily devotionals in the morning.

The book is available from some Christian Bookstores. The author is Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. Isn't that lovely? Mrs. Charles Cowman was very proud to be Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. I don't know who Mr. Cowman was but they were missionaries to China from 1901-1917, this was immediately following the Boxer Rebellion, a very violent episode in China. On the inside cover it says she has four other devotionals published. It also says that this particular one was first released in 1923 and was translated into more than a dozen languages. And yet, I don't know who she was or her first name. She was satisfied to be known by his name. There is a profound truth in that.

The devotional today in Springs in the Valley was probably what I needed to hear, despite the discomfort it caused. I am citing directly from the book.

July 12

I am pressing on. . . forgetting everything which is past." (Philippians 3:12, 13. Weymouth's trans.)

In the very depths of yourself, dig a grave. Let it be like some forgotten spot to which no path leads; and there, in the eternal silence, bury the wrongs that you have suffered. Your heart will feel as if a weight had fallen from it, and a divine peace come to abide with you. - Charles Wagner.

To be misunderstood even by those whom one loves is the cross and bitterness of life. It is the secret of that sad and melancholy smile on the lips of great men which so few understand. It is what must have oftenest wrung the hear of the Son of man. --Amiel

Blasted rock and broken stone,
Ordinary earth,
Rolled and rammed and trampled on,
Forgotten, nothing worth,
And blamed, but used day after day;
An open road -- the king's highway.

Often left outside the door,
Sometimes in the rain,
Always lying on the floor,
And made for mud and stain:
Men wipe their feet, and tread it flat,
And beat it clean-- the master's mat.

Thou was broken, left alone,
Thou wast blamed, and worse,
Thou was scourged and spat upon,
Thou didst become my curse--
Lord Jesus, as I think of that
I pray, make me Thy road, Thy mat.
---Gold Cord.

"The power to help others depends upon the acceptance of a trampled life."
--Springs in the Desert, Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, (c) 1996, Zondervon Publishing House


Now, to discover how I do that.