Tim Keller helped me twice this week

 I've had a stressful week. A family member died, school started under COVID rules (lecturing in a mask is not fun!), and there have been some interpersonal concerns. But I had the good sense to listen to Tim Keller podcasts on my walks and drives. 

He tells a cute but provocative story of a 15-year-old girl in his youth group when he first started in the ministry in Virginia. The girl was expressing some real questions and struggles. Being a theology student fresh out of seminary, he reminded her extensively of her spiritual blessings. "Yes, I know I'm born again. Yes, I know I'll be in heaven. Yes, I know God loves me. Yes, I know...." and so on; she affirmed the teachings of her church. "But what does that matter when the boys won't notice me?" Keller says the boys had caught her imagination even though the Bible had her mind.

We laugh at that, but it truly hit me in the heart over my struggles this week. We know and believe great truths, and yet minute matters can throw us totally off track.

He used another illustration from Elizabeth Elliot, who spoke of visiting friends in Wales who owned sheep. She watched them disinfect the sheep, which meant that they had to be totally submerged for a short period in the vat of disinfectant. That meant the shepherd and his workers had to wrestle the sheep into the vats and push them down, and she could see their eyes and faces saying "What are you doing to me, master?" She said that she saw herself in that vat, in their faces. "What are you doing to me, shepherd and master?" And I am asking the same.