thoughts on this season of eldership

Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies...
Jn 12.24  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Fixing my eyes on Jesus, because in life, it matters less how one starts than how one finishes.
Heb 12.1f  Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Never Walk Alone  (Matt Redmon)
www.worshiptogether.com/songs/songdetail.aspx?iid=1846861

Verse 1
Standing on this mountaintop
Looking just how far we've come
Knowing that for every step
You were with us

Verse 2
Kneeling on this battle ground
Seeing just how much You've done
Knowing every victory
Is Your power in us

Pre-Chorus
Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
Yes, our hearts can say

Chorus 1
Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

Repeat Verse 2
Repeat Pre-Chorus
Repeat Chorus 1

Bridge
Scars and struggles on the way
But with joy our hearts can say
    Never once did we ever walk alone
Carried by Your constant grace
Held within Your perfect peace
    Never once, no, we never walk alone

Ending Chorus
Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

    Every step we are breathing in Your grace
    Evermore we'll be breathing out Your praise
You are faithful, God, You are faithful
You are faithful, God, You are faithful

restful heart (Augustine)

To praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

St. Augustine, Confessions, book I, i(1)

hesitation (Dante)

A man prepared, who hesitates, is lost.

The Portable Dante - Page 155 
Dante Alighieri, ‎Mark Musa

live lightly: a reflection

Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
for how long?—
and loads himself with pledges!
- Habakkuk 2.6

Am I like this, living in the affluent West, with my possessions and financial accounts, reading on a device rather than paper book, built on the backs of poor brethern in other parts of the world?  Lord, help me to live lightly and in wisdom.

gold buys not rest (Dante)

You see, my son, the short-lived mockery
of all the wealth that is in Fortune’s keep,
over which the human race is bickering;

for all the gold that is or ever was
beneath the moon won’t buy a moment’s rest
for even one among these weary souls.

- Dante, The Divine Comedy, Canto VII

Glorious things of thee, City of God

On the holy mount stands the city he founded; 

the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. 
http://ref.ly/Ps87.1-3

Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken
formed thee for His own abode:
On the Rock of Ages founded,
what can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou mayst smile at all thy foes.

See, the streams of living waters,
springing from eternal love,
well supply thy sons and daughters
And all fear of want remove:
Who can faint while such a river
ever flows their thirst to assuage?
Grace which, like the Lord, the Giver,
never fails from age to age.

Round each habitation hov’ring,
See the cloud and fire appear
for a glory and a cov’ring,
showing that the Lord is near!
Glorious things of Thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God;
He whose word cannot be broken
formed thee for His own abode.
- John Newton

closer to perfection and pain (Dante)

I said, "Master, will these torments be increased,
or lessened, on the final Judgment Day,
or will the pain be just the same as now?”

And he: “Remember your philosophy:
the closer a thing comes to its perfection, more keen will be its pleasure or its pain. 

Although this cursed race of punished souls shall never know the joy of true perfection, more perfect will their pain be then than now."

Dante, The Divine Comedy: Inferno.  Canto VI

cuckoonebulopolis founded (Aristophanes)

Cuckoonebulopolis?
Hurrah! Hurrah!
Splendid! An absolutely gorgeous name!
...
Come now, you hurry out into the air
And serve the builders of our city wall.
Roll up your sleeves, tote gravel, mix the mortar,
Carry the hod ... and tumble off the ladder,
Set guards, and bank the fires, and go the rounds
With torch and bell, and sleep there on the job;
Dispatch a herald to the gods above,
Another to humanity below,
And then report to me.

- Aristophanes,  Birds

wings (Aristophanes)

Naught is better, naught more pleasant, than to grow a payor of wings.
At the theater, for instance, they'd be quite convenient things.

Aristophanes, Birds