"My heart abounds in love to thee"

My heart hurts for Minneapolis. First, the bridge collapse and then the young father beaten to death while riding his bike. I know people who live very near to both events, and I am extremely worried about them. I have been praying in earnest that they be kept safe.

I have been working on a post based on the idea that everything that happens in life is a blessing, based on Paul’s idea that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” If we know that all things work together for good, then we know that all things, even atrocities, must be blessings, even if we can’t see that while we are in the midst of a tragedy. The events in Minneapolis certainly challenge that idea, but I am going to cling faithfully to the belief that there are blessings there, even if I am challenged now to find them.

“Feel the reach of my love in thy heart, and be thou broken and tendered in the sense thereof, even of the heart-breaking love of God in which my heart abounds in love to thee with breathings to God that we may be kept living to him, through all our various exercises, that so we may daily learn with the blessed and wise apostle, in all conditions to be content, and that patience may have its perfect work in us.” John Banks, 4 Apr 1668