Every day when I awake, I face the ultimate challenge. I live, while many around me seem content to exist. I have learned much about my own weakness and much more about God’s strength. … It is glorious! Glorious to succeed, and, yes, even glorious to fail! This is the essence of a true believer’s existence. This is the breath of Heaven and the taste of immortality. This is the ultimate. Settle for nothing less.
Hakim shifted, trying to shield her eyes from what was in the distance. It took her brain a moment to process what it was; and then she realized it was a police car. Esther pulled back. “Where have you been, cousin?” She bored into his eyes, demanding an answer. He pushed past her into the apartment without answering, shutting the door behind him. She followed him to the table, still staring expectantly. “I cannot tell you.” Here eyes darted around the room. Could not tell her or would not tell her?
“I’ll read the Bible that Master Tyndale translates,” I said. “And ponder it.” “And ponder it,” I agreed.” “Praise the Lord,” said Uncle Jack. But there was a hollow sound to his words. I had heard if oft before. It came when he said, in his deepest voice, “Praise the Lord.” He was not, I was certain, as interested in my pondering the Bible as he was in the tidy profit the books would bring.
The God he’d read about in the Bible was a majestic, glorious God. Why would the God with the power to create the world even take notice of the despicable humans on this earth? What would love from a God like that be like? So huge, so enduring, so powerful that no mere human could ever comprehend it.