Perseverance and Grace

Today I have two thoughts! You guessed it - one on perseverance and one on God's amazing grace.
First, the other day I pulled James 1:4 from my jar, "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." This verse came out when I was struggling with how long my life seems at the moment. Right now there are two different important things that are going to take a lot of time before I see results. First, my college degrees. I'm pretty set on becoming a Physical Therapist, so I'm getting a 4-year Biomedical Sciences degree and then continuing another 3 years in grad school to get a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. When I'm just almost done with my freshman year, that's a fairly daunting idea. Sometimes I say that I wish I could just inject all the knowledge into my brain and start working now, but as the verse says, I must persevere. 
Another thing that's going to take time to culminate is my relationship. A lot of people (it seems like I've been talking about this a lot lately) are surprised when they hear that my boyfriend and I discuss our future fairly often. We recognize that we're each other's best friend, and neither of us can really imagine anyone better to spend our lives with. So yes, we've talked about marriage and a possible timeframe for that. The soonest we could logically consider that course of action would be 3 or 4 years from now, when I at least have a degree and he's almost finished his. Sometimes I say "Psh, with him that's not that long." But temptation is difficult and sometimes we both wish we could have a bit of a closer goal. But yeah, then that verse came out of my jar. The phrase "mature and complete, not lacking anything" really struck me. God is having us wait so that we will both be complete and ready to start a life together.This is all under the belief that it is God's will for us to end up together.

My second meditation of sorts is on Isaiah 9:6-7 and 53:2-12, and comes from a discussion we had in my favorite class, "The Bible". My professor is really great, first of all, and comes up with some really neat connections. Today he first asked us to look at the section in chapter 9. (This thought is very appropriate for the season of Lent, by the way) There Jesus is foretold as a mighty ruler who will come in glory and fix the world, with such lovely language as "Wonderful Counselor", "Prince of Peace" and "Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end." This is the image of Jesus that we sometimes like to focus on. But chapter 53 paints a rather different picture, and is really wonderful to think about if you think about it right. Here are some of my favorite verses from the section: from verses 2 "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him." and verses 5 and 6 "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Even though we like to envision the Christ as mighty and great, in truth he was simple and rejected by the world. He died a gruesome death on a cross, the death reserved for the worst of criminals. He not only covered our sins with his sacrifice, but also became the scapegoat and carried them completely away. Here's a beautiful thought that my prof pointed out: When he descended into hell, defeated the devil, and rose again, he could have come back as a victor with a perfect and flawless body. But, as we see in the Gospels with the story of Doubting Thomas, he chose to keep the wounds by which we are healed, as proof and reminder that we are paid for. So although it seems like a contradiction of his glorious image, I think the gruesome sacrifice and the resulting scars are absolutely beautiful.