desolation...

desolation

"I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
I do not understand what I do.
For what I want to do I do not do,
but what I hate I do.

As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it,
but it is sin living in me.
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me,
that is, in my sinful nature.
For I have the desire to do what is good,
but I cannot carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want to do,
but the evil I do not want to do...
this I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want to do,
it is no longer I who do it,
but it is sin living in me that does it.

Although I want to do good,
evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
but I see another law at work in me,
waging war against the law of my mind
and making me a prisoner of the law of sin
at work within me.
What a wretched man I am!
Who will rescue me from this body
that is subject to death?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me
through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
- Taken from Romans 7 NIV

"Desolation is a file,
and the endurance of darkness
is preparation for great light."
- St. John of the Cross