I sent out an email this morning to a few of my friends letting them know that I was in a tough place.  That I couldn’t track God in this story.

Here’s what they replied:

“God is faithful based on his character. He is tracking u

whether u can track him or not.”

Yours is pastoral work in the “furnace of affliction.”  Wounds are a prerequisite for effective pastoral service. (I answered this one by saying I was applying for a job in a department store.)

And then this:

Here is a verse from John Piper’s poem (yes he writes poetry too!) on Ruth.

“Are these

The only things. Grampa , that she

Could see? Just grief? It seems to me

That God was doing more.” ” Indeed

He was. But, david, sometimes creed

Can’t keep up with the speed of pain

And has to make the meaning plain

When suffering slows down. Do you

Know what I mean?”” I think it’s too

Complex, grandpa” ” I mean that what

Naomi knew of God was not

Rejected when she wept her way

Back home to Bethlehem. The day

Would come when tortoise faith would catch

The bounding hare of pain and match

His power, not his pace, and win.

Judge not from how the two begin.

With friends like these…