I read a book shortly after returning from 4 years in Tatarstan, Russia ten years ago that still affects me today. It's called, "Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton. Despite its title, the incredibly long thoughts that sometimes stretch for pages at a time, and the fact that it was written in 1908 when GK was a young man - it is amazingly relevant. I'll let him speak for himself:
"...it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has an eternal appetite for infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a Theatrical encore."
(Ignatius Press reprinted 1995 pp65,66)
This is the enthusiastic God that my discouragements never mirror. This is the Lord of Creation that I go to for refreshment and rejuvenation. This is the eternally joyful God of the Bible who works good through all things. This is my Redeemer whom I worship. We are transparent before Him and constantly in need of His refreshment. Yet we hide.
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