daunting

‘Hope and change’ has become a cliche in our nation,
and it is daunting to think that any American could hope for change
from what God has blessed.
Billy Graham

To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune;
to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it;
to go through intrigue spotless; to forego even ambition when the end is gained–
who can say this is not greatness?”
William Makepeace Thackeray

(seagull surveying the tide / Julie Cook / 2017)

The task, should we choose to accept it, is nothing less than daunting.
To grow neither weary nor faint in the face of all that stretches before us.

To conform, to forget, to be worldly wise…the siren calls are ever more shrill.

Can you stand while facing the maelstrom, fully aware that you will be knocked
down, caught in the swirling toxic mix,
unable to surface when absolutely necessary?

Can you remain resolute?
Can you insist on what is right when your’s is the only voice left crying above the
madness?

Are you willing to defend the Fatih—the Truth, the One True God along with His Word…
a word that is absolute despite the cultural allure crying above all other words…

Will you fight against a culture that denounces you, ridicules you
and scorns you?

Can you withstand the taunts, the ridicule, the defamatory attacks?

Because in the end, that is what it will be striped down to….
a time for the courageous of faith to stand up and resist…

And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2