Wednesday 12.22.10: Daily Disciplines

Wake Up:
5:30 am

Devotion:
Streams in the Desert
A thick and dreadful darkness cam over him (Gen 15:12)

Have you every experienced a terrible sorrow that seems difficult to reconcile with Gods perfect love... A sorrow that comes crashing down upon you, wrings from your souldl its peaceful rest in the grace of God, and casts it into a sea of darkness that is unlit by even one ray of hope? Have you experienced a sorrow caused by unkindness, when others cruelly mistreat your trusting heart, and you even begin to wonder if there is really a God above who sees what is happening yet continues to allow it? If you know this kind of sorrow, then you know something of this "thick and dreadful darkness."

Human life is made of brightness and gloom, shadows and shushine, and dark clouds followed by brilliant rays of light. Yet through it all, God's divine justice is accomplishing His plan, affecting and disciplining each individual soul.

The disciples thought that the angry sea separated them from Jesus. In fact, some of them thought something even worse... they thought that the trouble they were facing was a sign that He had forgotten them and did not care about them.

O dear friend, that is when your troubles can cause the most harm. The devil comes and whispers to you, "God has forgotten you" or "God has forsaken you" and your unbelieving heart cries out, as Gideon once did, "If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?" (Judg 6:13) God has allowed the difficulty to come upon you, in order to bring you closer to Himself. It has come not to separate you from Jesus but to cause you to cling to Him more faithfuly, more firmly, and more simply.

We should abandon ourselves to God more fully at those times when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy His light and comfort when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but may we not attach ourselves to His gifts. May we instead attach ourselves to Him, and when He oplunges us into the night where pure faith is required, may we still press on through the agonizing darkness.

Oh, for faith that brings the triumph
   when defeat seems very near!
Oh, for faith that brings the triumph
   Into victorys ringing cheer...
Faith triumphant; knowing not defeat or fear.

Workout:
WOD: Edge

Warm Up: 5 rfq

• 10 dips
• 10 pushups
• 10 squats

Work Capacity: 5 rft  (Time: 21:11)

• 30 Pushups
• 10 Squat Clean
• 20 DB Swing
• 30 Upright Row

Strength/Stamina:

• Mobility Complex (5 reps of each excercise, each arm, using 35 lb db)
• DB Swing
• Goblet Squat
• Hang Squat Clean
• 1 arm hang squat clean
• 1 arm hang squat clean to thruster
• 1 arm hang squat clean, press to stand
• 1 arm hang clean to jerk to squat

Durability:

• Skipped due to time

Mobility:

• Skipped due to time