All the stories of success in chapter 11 make it sound like life with Jesus is always up and to the right, climbing - even soaring - to the lofty heights of faith and virtue.
And then there's the end of chapter 11.
Some didn't make it. Some were tortured. Some were imprisoned. Some flogged. Some sawn in two.
Not exactly how you think it will go.
There are points of life where it feels like you're Midas. A golden touch and wonder and awe. And there are points where flogging, stoning, torture, and a saw is your lot.
Either way the call is the same: be faithful. That's a strong word for me today.
The interesting part is that it is sometimes easier to be faithful in hard times, when you truly understand you have nowhere else to go, than it is in easy times when it's easy to think you are personally responsible for at least a good-sized piece of the soaring that's going on. Your talent, your wise decisions, and so on. Forgetting for at least the moment where your talent and wisdom came from in the first place. But the admonition to remain faithful is always a good one, regardless the present circumstances.
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