SCORCHED FINGERTIPS

(Post by: Madie Hobbs)

I write to you from the comfort of my dining room, on a hot September night, knowing not quite what I wish to fill these pages with.

Let us embark, shall we, on what I am sure will prove to be an adventure for the both of us?

To my right and left, sit five different volumes of various forms of literature. Some historic, some fantastical, some mythical, and some academical. Which of them I shall draw from I believe I have determined, and it is one I have written of before.

Don’t worry, you have been spared from The Lord of the Rings, this time, though it is one of the many accompanying me on this late-night exploration.

The title I will be drawing from tonight is one I am sure many of you have heard of and few of you have read. The Aeneid, by Virgil is practically a right of passage in completing a classical education, and so, unsurprisingly, it has become a favorite book of mine.

The story is one of a gallant man, called Aeneas, who is tasked with leading the defeated people of Troy on a quest for a new land, which ultimately ends up being Rome. He and those accompanying him are faced with many trials and tribulations, as we are today, though theirs may have been slightly more intense.

Towards the very beginning of the book, as they flee their homeland and begin their task of finding a new one, many of the company are, understandably, weary, defeated, and discouraged.

All but Aeneas.

He stands tall before the people, though he has experienced as many personal losses as the rest and feels them keenly in his heart, and looks around at his fellow, homeless troop.

Before he prepares to move on and pursue their ultimate destiny, he utters a few words I found particularly encouraging.

“Friends and companions,” he begins, “have we not known hard hours before this? My men, who have endured still greater dangers, God will grant us an end to these as well… Now call back your courage, and have done with fear and sorrow. Someday, perhaps, remembering even this will be a pleasure. Through diversities of luck, and through so many challenges, we hold our course… Be patient: save yourselves for more auspicious days.”

This speech is one I marked the moment I read it, and I have often referred to it in later days. It is one which rouses me to the fight, and reminds me that even darkness will pass, no matter how thick it may feel.

We can tend to be like the people, though, can’t we? Who believe all hope is lost. Who believe the darkness will continue to deepen and spread.

I know I certainly can be.

I can tend to sit in the dark and curse it for bothering me. Complain about its oppressiveness and weight. Wish for it to leave me alone.

But then I am reminded of this speech, and the power Jesus has given us to banish the dark, and I wonder how I ever got it into my head in the first place that I am subjected to the powers of evil working around me.

You see, I have found it is always better to light a match and let it burn, however small a flame it renders, instead of simply sitting and regretting the dark.

This speech has reminded me anew that I have known hard hours before this, and yet my match still burns with the light of Life. I have decided to have done with my fear and sorrows and allow my match to burn until the flame scorches my fingertips. I have determined to hold my course and save my fear for more auspicious days.

I pray only that you may join me, and our matches may join one another in their burning, until so many of us have come alongside one another that our matches turn to torches.

There. I knew we would find an adventure somewhere within these pages!

SO, WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= Are you currently cursing the darkness around you?

= How will you let your match shine?

= What are you going to do differently?