Tenacity

The Vision of Ezekiel, Raphael, 1518

Ezekiel is so small I almost couldn't find him in the painting =P Maybe it is Raphael's way of telling us how we are so utterly dependent on God in all things great and small. I ain't doing too good in the faith department these days, so I'll stick to this painting for a while.

"Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

Tenacity is more than endurance, it is endurance combined with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire. Tenacity is more than hanging on, which may be but the weakness of being too afraid to fall off. Tenacity is the supreme effort of a man refusing to believe that his hero is going to be conquered. The greatest fear a man has is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for - love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men - will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o'-the-wisps. Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.

If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means that they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. One of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience."

Remain spiritually tenacious.

Taken from Oswald Chamber
http://www.myutmost.org/02/0222.html

On another note, I think I'll email dr ruby at 5am to ask for an extension for my draft 1. Late night emails usually evoke sympathy from profs that students are going through crap in their essay-ing life. No champions league football to keep my vigil though, so I'll have my international law textbook to keep me company. Studying for mid-sem test is like trying to fight insurgents in iraq... no progress in sight...