7/31/04 2:34 pm the boys are having their afternoon nap and I’m on the
couch typing.
Yesterday I read a great thing, but I haven’t been able to write it down
until today.
I read 2 cor 4:8 “We are …perplexed, but not in despair…” Since I
had just heard from work that my reign of error is continuing and I’m
wondering if I’m doing the right thing or not, I was perplexed about
God’s plan for us. So I came across this passage and looked the words up
in my greek dictionary, and here’s what I read:
perplexed: aporeo, a-prefix meaning not, poreuomai-to travel, movement,
go somewhere; used figuratively of being still or perplexed
and then I looked up despair:
exaporeomai, same ‘not’ prefix, but with EX- at the beginning to add
intensity. the definition went on to say it was a word used to describe
someone who was not moving because they had no direction.
perplexed is not going because you don’t know how to go, despair is not
going because you don’t know where to go.
I commented to a friend this week how sad it must be for people to go to
work somewhere without the confidence that God has called them to be
there. Without God’s calling to do something, aren’t you just doing it
to please yourself? So then when things don’t go your way, why stay? I’m
surprised that the whole world isn’t a constant bunch of people quitting
their jobs and getting new ones. oh wait.
I will stay on the course God has for me. I may not be moving in terms
of travel, but at least I know where I’m headed. It’s so encouraging to
know that Paul the Apostle was himself left standing, vision in hand,
until the proper time for it to be fulfilled.