Posts
...can give one time to think.
There are hard things in this world, and at times they seem to press like a yoke. The thickness of grief and the realization of how many, how very many, stumble through it with no assurance that all will be well. The knowledge of children who are growing up suffocated--by media, by materialism, by false philosophies, by the unbreathable air of godlessness. The utter void where God is supposed to be that so many try so hard to fill with self. The turning, falling, fading, atrophying away of America's Christians. The way in which God's church has abandoned truth, has forgotten why it exists. The way we have lost our first love, or perhaps never knew Him to begin with.
This morning, though, I find hope. I choose to lift up my mustard seed of faith, placing it in God's hands and asking for mountains to be thrown into the sea. I plead for restoration, I beg for redemption, and I ask to somehow know what it is to bear daily the heart of Christ.
We are broken people.
I am broken.
I am part of the problem.
I am not altogether consumed by Christ.
God in His mercy teach us humility, help us to know ourselves as dust, take us up in His hands so we can be made into something more.
In the hard times it is good to remember the promise of Jesus "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail" (Matt. 16:18). Jesus told that to the mess-up Peter, and the same encouragement is for us also. What we see around us, and what weighs upon us--both inside and outside--it will not prevail.
ReplyDeleteYes. Thank you. The work of Christ, its redemption, its hope, cannot be bound. I just wish we all--myself included--were better at submitting, at discerning where and how our vision is being clouded, at asking God for true sight. A promise that the gates of hell will not prevail leaves little room for hopelessness, though, yes? :) It's a beautiful reminder.
DeleteYes, I agree--were that we all understood our need better.
DeleteIn my own struggle with this large issue I also ponder what we/I mean by "seeing" or having unclouded vision. I think there is a way in which we can speak about having eyes of faith to see this world--but when we say to ourselves that we wish we could "see" I wonder how often we are truly talking about a sight of faith.
I think so often what our heart is saying is that if we could "see" better what God is doing (whether literally with our eyes, or simply a perception of our intellect) then everything would be easier and we could go on with greater joy. But in this I am reminded of the admonishment "We walk by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor. 5:7) So often our desire, and even prayer to God, that we might see is, in our heart, a request of God that we no longer be required to walk by faith.
So when my desire to see is not answered I am driven to ask myself if what I want (much as it seems good to me) is not in accord with the goodness of God at this time. Yes, one day we will see clearly but today we have been called to believe by faith what God has said and is doing--and the reality of faith asserts that we shall not see it until faith is no longer needed.
Yes, it is good to long to see the glory of God manifested, and the day will come when it shall be. But when the Day of the Lord comes and every knee shall bow, then the mercy of God to this fallen world will have reached its end. So, for as long as it is called Today we ought to pray for faith to believe what our eyes cannot see--nor shall see--this side on final redemption. God has saved that seeing for a special day, which is a reminder of how glorious that will be.
Which is not to say that we aren't given little glimpses of seeing, flashes here and there in our lives. But in my experience becoming fixated on those little graces becomes a stumbling block--we end up trying to live from little glimpse of glory to little glimpse instead of taking our stand on the daily rock of faith which declares, "Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea" (Psalm 46:2)
But that is a hard thing. In the darkest times I wanted desperately to see the light--and simply believing God in the darkest could feel like an awful bitter consolation when everything in me was calling out in desire to see the redemption.
I think the question of what we mean by “seeing” is a good one. In writing this I had some pretty specific situations in mind--in my students‘ lives, in friends’ lives, in a family member’s life. In reflecting a bit, I think what I mean by “unclouded vision” is having faith in the goodness of the purposes of God. In that sense, yes, “seeing” relates very much to faith. I know in my bones God’s sovereignty, and I affirm that His sovereignty does all things well. I suppose this post was an exhortation to myself, a reminder, when I found myself mulling over the messy rawness of some of my students‘ lives--rawness they don’t deserve, and rawness I can only try to stitch up in my own very small way by large doses of love and (fervent but not always frequent enough) prayers that our Father would hold them in His hand and bring them to a place of faith someday. Other situations involve others in my life who claim Christ’s name making choices that (to me as I understand God’s truth) represent an utter turning inside-out of the good, true, and beautiful and a grasping at “love” and tolerance (some of sin’s most insidious masquerades in our times).
DeleteWhen forced to stand face-to-face to these things, I want to be honest with myself and with God. God’s ways are higher, and “unclouded vision” in one sense perhaps means never ceasing to acknowledge that (simultaneously acknowledging that these ways are not cold or sterile, but good...that God truly is Love in all things, but Love is something I don’t understand fully).
Faith is necessary. Every day seems to bring challenges that want to cloud my vision, my ability to rest in God. All this to say is that this is something I’m trying to learn--resting in God not as an Unknowable, but as an Intimate. He is good, and by His grace I think I am learning.
Interestingly enough, my experience of those flashes of seeing that you mentioned, those “little graces” serve not as a stumbling block, but as simple encouragement. Yes, I’m one of those who writes down some of those graces in a little book; seriation doesn’t matter, but remembering the goodness of God does. We are called to remember God’s movement among us, His movement of us, over and over again (in the Old Testament especially, and during times of doubt and trial). Perhaps part of the issue is how we define those “little graces.” I’m thinking not of things that are trivial or petty (although some of those do still bring joy!), but the things in which God allows us to see His hand moving. Yes, we are standing on the daily rock of faith in Christ! But I believe we have a God Who lets us see small redemptions happening now that we might have a glimpse of the Complete Redemption to come.
Just to clarify (on the chance I was misunderstood) I don't think the "little flashes of seeing" are in themselves a stumbling block. I think people can turn them (and many other good things as well) into stumbling blocks. But they are given by God as blessings and if rightly received are such.
DeleteAgreed. :)
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