Monday, September 17, 2007

Strength From Weakness

My father in law sent me this article and I wanted to share it since I have been dealing with quite a few deaths from illness these past two years and I found it excellently written. It gives a great perspective. The article is by Tony Snow, the president's former press secretary.


Here is a brief intro from the article...

Commentator and broadcaster Tony Snow announced that he had colon cancer in 2005. Following surgery and chemo-therapy, Snow joined the Bush administration in April 2006 as press secretary. Unfortunately, on March 23 Snow, 51, a husband and father of three, announced that the cancer had recurred, with tumors found in his abdomen—leading to surgery in April, followed by more chemotherapy. Snow went back to work in the White House Briefing Room on May 30, but resigned August 31. CT asked Snow what spiritual lessons he has been learning through the ordeal.

And a small section from it...

"The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.

There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do."

I encourage you to read it in its entirety.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing this article. It is well-written and inspiring. This perspective needs to be in the fore front of my mind. I want to live a wild life of virtue even if it means being hard-pressed on every side.

Samantha from Colonial Curve Cottage said...

wow...