http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thisweekinchristianhistory/
On this date, two great authors are born - December 11, 1792: Jacob Mohr, who wrote "Silent Night" and in 1918, Russian author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn whose influential works helped bring the former Soviet Union to its end.
Under a repressive Communist government, his political views landed him in prisons where his mathematical skills, rather than his personally preferred writing ability, kept him employed and alive. He wrote in secret while in the camps, not knowing how his work would ever be published. But eventually they were despite many great obstacles.
In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Solzhenitsyn had this to say-
"It is almost always impossible to evaluate at the time events which you have already experienced, and to understand their meaning with the guidance of their effects. All the more unpredictable and surprising to us will be the course of future events."
The terrible conditions in which Solzhenitsyn found himself in the war, or later, the "Gulag", must have made liberty and hope for a productive life-work seem impossible, "at the time". Yet, he could later credit those experiences with value that was not obvious "at the time".
When we unwillingly find ourselves in situations that we do not welcome, or see as helpful to our greater plans or dreams, can we persist in doing as much as we are able to in the belief that there is a Higher Power that oversees our importunity? And perhaps even has a greater purpose than the one we would prefer to follow?
How do we respond when forced by circumstances to explore the limits of our faith and trust in God? We are human, but our God is able to sustain us and make us fruitful for his purposes!
