Those beautiful objects were moved by Divine Love;
so the time and tranquil hour
proved the hopefulness in what I saw

We know a lot about celestial bodies now and how they work, and it is easy to shrug as we watch the stars at night or see the sun rise in the morning. They can be explained away as mere scientific phenomena. And yet at the same time they cannot be fully so– look on the next sunrise with your eyes open to its grandeur and beauty. Allow the glorious splendour of the sight move you– it is then easy to see how they are moved with Divine Love. When you are depressed and everything seems worthless and pointless– look up at the sky and the stars. They prove the existence of hope; allow them to prove it in you as well. This is not a worship of the heavens, but rather seeing in them the reflected beauty of their Creator.

In the time of morning’s opening
The sun rose up together
along with the stars that were in fellowship

We often thing about difficult times we go through as being darkness, and indeed the traveller had gone through the deep dark woods. But now we see that, despite a wild animal in the path, the sun is beginning to rise. I’m sure we have all been up at some point when the first beginnings of dawn were appearing– at first it is not spectacular. The darkness simply seems to gently lift– we can see better. Often we want hard stuff we’re going through to suddenly burst out in light and everything to be okay again, but that usually isn’t what happens. We just notice one day that it isn’t quite as dark as it seemed before. It is important to notice this early beginning of morning.

6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
7 But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

Here is an admonition that when you hear good teachings, it is best to pass them on. That way you know if you really understood them yourself, and it can encourage other people. If you heard a great homily and run into a friend who wasn’t there, see if you can give them the main points that would be helpful. It will bring you to a deeper understanding of the concepts as well.

Verse seven cautions to go by facts, rather than rumour and hearsay. As an example, Paul uses exercise/sports. Going out walking and keeping your body healthy is important, but doesn’t save your soul. We should work just as hard at our spiritual health because it is even more crucial.

There is a Middle Ages book called Piers Plowman that addresses this idea. In it there are three paths of life presented. Dowell = Do well by working hard at physical exercise and labour. Dobett = Do better by instead studying and working on godliness. Dobest = Do best by combining both and looking after both physical and spiritual aspects.

If this seems too hard, there is a reminder that the most important thing to pay attention to is that our hope is in God, not what we can accomplish on our own.