A couple months ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Orlando for the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference, a weekend of great teaching, some good rest, and the chance to hang out with some really old friends (time, not age!) and some brand-new friends. The final conference message was by Don Carson on Nehemiah 13*, addressing common pitfalls of reformation and revival, certainly helpful things to think through as we work and pray toward the growth of God's church here in Toronto. But of all the things he mentioned from this passage, it was an observation from his first point that I've really been thinking through in the last several weeks. Nehemiah 13:1-3 tells us that as the people listened to the law of God being read, they discovered that "no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the Assembly of God, for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them", and that as the people heard this, "they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent". Carson pointed out the danger of going beyond the law, of not only removing those God had specifically asked them to bar, but also anyone at all who was not of Israelite descent. The original law is from Deuteronomy 23, where it says that "no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of The Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever... You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever." But then it goes on to say that "You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor and Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the LORD." So clearly, God is not barring all foreigners from the assembly of his people. Carson's point was that in our eagerness to be law-abiders, we can be tempted to go beyond God's requirements, setting up standards that are "higher" and more stringent than even what a holy and righteous God requires. Very true, and something to be guarded against.
But what has really struck me as I've reread the passages from Nehemiah and Deuteronomy over the past several weeks is not so much what WE do with God's standards, but what HE does. As I read Deuteronomy 23 and see the blunt statement that no Moabite is to be permitted in God's assembly, I cannot help but immediately think of the Bible's most well-known Moabite. "No Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD forever". And yet... Turn over a couple books and find Ruth, a Moabite who, by God's own sovereign appointment, was not only brought into the people of God, but who was great-grandmother to the man after God's own heart, King David. Not even close to ten generations passed before God took the descendant of a Moabite and put him on the throne of Israel. And it doesn't even end there! Generations go by, hundreds of years pass, and who is David's descendant? Jesus himself, God's own son and Saviour of God's people. In his genealogy, Matthew reminds us in no uncertain terms that Ruth (along with a few other "unsavoury" characters) is in the very family line of Jesus.
How is it that God can forbid the inclusion of any Moabite or his descendant in his assembly and then turn around and bring his own son into the world as the descendant of a Moabite? Only in the same way that we, who were once children of wrath like the rest of mankind, have been made alive together with Christ and seated with him in God's heavenly assembly. BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses... While we were still his enemies, pronouncing curses against God and his people, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, the son of a Moabite. His great-great-great grandmother was an object of wrath, brought into God's family by grace alone, and through his perfect life, death and resurrection, he now intercedes for all us Moabites who trust in him for our identity, so that we can stand in God's assembly without fear of rejection.
Our God is holy and righteous and his requirements are perfect and good, yes. And our God is unfathomably full of mercy and grace toward those who will come to him confessing that in and of themselves, they have nothing to offer and, in fact, no reason to even hope for his acceptance, apart from Jesus' perfect fulfillment of the entire law of God and his death on the cross for the curse we deserve.
"God so loved the objects of his judicial wrath that He made a sovereign, unconditional Promise to save them, not by setting aside the requirements of His holy Law, but by fulfilling them Himself, in the Person of His beloved Son! 'Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other!' To God be the glory, forever and ever!" (Charles Leiter, The Law of Christ)
Do you know this mercy? And do you extend this mercy to those around you, to the outcasts, to the broken, to the rebellious, to those who don't meet your standards?
Let's rejoice today in such mercy extended to us, and may it flow through us to the world around us to the praise of God's glorious grace!
__________________________________________________________________
*the full audio and video are available here
Showing posts with label The Gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Gospel. Show all posts
Monday, September 08, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
The Joys of Sin Exposed
I feel like the past couple months have been a season of God exposing various sins in my life, and it hasn't exactly been pleasant. If you've ever had such a season, you know what I mean. We don't like to have our sins exposed. Most of us would be quite thankful to stuff them in the dark back corner of a closet, never to be seen again (and preferably never to be pulled out in the first place). But as I've thought and prayed and meditated on God's Word in this season, I'm also learning to be thankful for sin exposed.
I'm thankful that God sees my sin. We often shudder at the thought of a God who knows all that we do, who sees into the dark back corner of that closet and brings to light what is hidden there. We like to think it would be better if He could just ignore it, or better yet, be completely oblivious to it. But the fact of the matter is that if God didn't see or care about our sin, we'd be stuck with it with no hope of escape. We can't deal with the sin in our lives or its ramifications. "We hope for light, and behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us..." (see Isaiah 59:9-15a)
BUT, the Lord saw it, and yes, it displeased him that there was no justice. And when he saw the sins of the world, ours included, he also saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede, and so his own arm brought him salvation, and he sent a redeemer to his people. (Isaiah 59:15b-20)
Because God is fully aware of our sin and the condemnation it brings, and because he has compassion, he has also provided a way of escape through his son, Jesus, who died to take the penalty for all the sins I'm aware of, and all the ones that are still hidden from my eyes.
I'm thankful that God makes me aware of my sin. I am, of course, also thankful that he does this little by little and not all at once, as that would likely totally destroy me. But if he were simply to deal with the penalty for my sin and never confront me with its existence in my life, I would have at least two problems. One: I would not ever be fully aware of my desperate need for salvation and the ongoing help of the Holy Spirit. It is at the times when I am most aware of my sinfulness that I am also most aware of the beauty of God's grace and mercy toward me at the Cross. I would rather see my sin for what it truly is than to live in a permanent state of apathy toward my salvation. And two: I would never change. Acknowledgement of sin is the first step in turning away from it. Where I am not aware of wrongdoing, I just keep on running over those same ruts, living life the same way and ignorantly persisting in sin. But even as I pray with the Psalmist that God would forgive my "hidden faults", it is good when I am aware of the sin in my life so that I can pray and work toward change. It is far better to grow in grace and become little by little more like my Saviour than to go through life in "peaceful" obliviousness to my hidden faults. So I also pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalm 39:23, 24)
And I'm thankful that sin exposed and repented of is also removed from me as far as the east is from the west!
I don't enjoy having my sins paraded before me. There are days when the weight of my wrongs feels a little too crushing. But this is not a thing to despise. Just as in seasons of peace, these seasons of battle are God's care for his children, showing us that he is aware of our sin and has fully and finally dealt with it, and then making us abundantly grateful for our salvation and turning us bit by bit into the likeness of his perfectly sinless Son, all to his praise and glory. So I will rejoice in sins exposed, thank God for his kindness that leads to repentance, and by his grace turn around to walk in his ways, to the glory of his name.
I'm thankful that God sees my sin. We often shudder at the thought of a God who knows all that we do, who sees into the dark back corner of that closet and brings to light what is hidden there. We like to think it would be better if He could just ignore it, or better yet, be completely oblivious to it. But the fact of the matter is that if God didn't see or care about our sin, we'd be stuck with it with no hope of escape. We can't deal with the sin in our lives or its ramifications. "We hope for light, and behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us..." (see Isaiah 59:9-15a)
BUT, the Lord saw it, and yes, it displeased him that there was no justice. And when he saw the sins of the world, ours included, he also saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede, and so his own arm brought him salvation, and he sent a redeemer to his people. (Isaiah 59:15b-20)
Because God is fully aware of our sin and the condemnation it brings, and because he has compassion, he has also provided a way of escape through his son, Jesus, who died to take the penalty for all the sins I'm aware of, and all the ones that are still hidden from my eyes.
I'm thankful that God makes me aware of my sin. I am, of course, also thankful that he does this little by little and not all at once, as that would likely totally destroy me. But if he were simply to deal with the penalty for my sin and never confront me with its existence in my life, I would have at least two problems. One: I would not ever be fully aware of my desperate need for salvation and the ongoing help of the Holy Spirit. It is at the times when I am most aware of my sinfulness that I am also most aware of the beauty of God's grace and mercy toward me at the Cross. I would rather see my sin for what it truly is than to live in a permanent state of apathy toward my salvation. And two: I would never change. Acknowledgement of sin is the first step in turning away from it. Where I am not aware of wrongdoing, I just keep on running over those same ruts, living life the same way and ignorantly persisting in sin. But even as I pray with the Psalmist that God would forgive my "hidden faults", it is good when I am aware of the sin in my life so that I can pray and work toward change. It is far better to grow in grace and become little by little more like my Saviour than to go through life in "peaceful" obliviousness to my hidden faults. So I also pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalm 39:23, 24)
And I'm thankful that sin exposed and repented of is also removed from me as far as the east is from the west!
I don't enjoy having my sins paraded before me. There are days when the weight of my wrongs feels a little too crushing. But this is not a thing to despise. Just as in seasons of peace, these seasons of battle are God's care for his children, showing us that he is aware of our sin and has fully and finally dealt with it, and then making us abundantly grateful for our salvation and turning us bit by bit into the likeness of his perfectly sinless Son, all to his praise and glory. So I will rejoice in sins exposed, thank God for his kindness that leads to repentance, and by his grace turn around to walk in his ways, to the glory of his name.
Monday, May 05, 2014
Hearing the Story With New Ears
"A long time ago, there was a very real man named Jesus, who was also really God, but for many years, he lived on this earth with people like you and me, and was a real live person like you and me... except that unlike you and me, he never, ever did anything bad or wrong. All of his life, he was kind and good and caring and faithful and obedient. But there were people who didn't like him and they wanted to kill him."
I'm telling the Easter story to a group of children, some of whom have heard it many times before and others of whom have never heard it at all.
"Have you ever had a friend or someone who said they loved you, but then they did something that hurt you or made you sad?" Most of the heads nod. "Jesus had friends like that, too. One of them, Judas, wanted to get some money, so he went and told the men who wanted to kill Jesus exactly where they could find him. Jesus knows what it's like to have friends who turn their back on you and hurt you.
"Or has anyone ever made fun of you?" More nodding. "Before the people went to have Jesus killed, they mocked him and teased him because he said he was the King. And even though he really was the King, they thought it was ridiculous, so they made him wear a pretend robe and put a crown--only it was made of thorns--on his head and made him march in front of all the townspeople. Jesus knows what it's like to have people laugh at you, even when you're not doing anything wrong."
One little boy, very concerned, pipes up. "But is Jesus dead now?"
"Hold on," I say. "We're not done with the story... So the soldiers took Jesus and they put him up on a cross. Do you know what a cross is?"
The kids who have heard this story before all say, "Yes." Among the kids who haven't, there is some confusion until I describe it a little and one of them says, "Is that like in Pirates of the Caribbean where those guys are hanging in the background?"
Um, possibly. I have yet to be able to sit through that film. But on I go to describe what happens next. The kids who are familiar with Good Friday don't bat an eye. But I am becoming acutely aware, as I briefly and without great detail reference the nails, the spear, the blood, the agony, that this story is hitting the new kids differently. I am beginning to realize just how horrid this story is. There is no G rating on the Easter narrative. When Jesus finally dies, a girl says, "Do I have to keep listening? This story is scary. And sad." Yes, dear, yes it is.
I have heard the story of Easter countless times. I have told it over and over again. But it's not often that I've been so aware of the darkness of the cross. Rarely have I really felt the confusion over this act of violence against God, against a good man, against a man who understands our deepest griefs and carries our sorrows. And never before have I felt such joyful relief as I arrive at the part of the story when I get to tell the kids that the tomb was EMPTY. That this man who died for our sins though he was sinless, this man who really and truly sympathizes with our pain and weakness, is no longer dead. He was dead, but he is not dead now. He is very much alive and his righteousness is very much ours who believe in His name!
Year after year, month after month, day after day, we reference the cross and the empty tomb. We hear it in sermons, we read it in books, we tell it amongst ourselves. And it can become stale. We can be like the kids who've heard this one a thousand times. Oh yes, Easter. When we celebrate how Jesus died on the cross and rose again. Wait. What?!
I don't want to lose the childlike view of the agonizing old rugged cross, nor the childlike wonder at the resurrection. I want more opportunities to see the story of Easter through the lens of a person who has never heard such a story before, through a child who sees the darkness of it and can't help but jump for joy at the ending (which is really a new beginning). And while I can't ever hear it again for the first time in reality, maybe my own ears can hear it in a fresh way if I keep telling it to those who haven't yet heard.
I'm telling the Easter story to a group of children, some of whom have heard it many times before and others of whom have never heard it at all.
"Have you ever had a friend or someone who said they loved you, but then they did something that hurt you or made you sad?" Most of the heads nod. "Jesus had friends like that, too. One of them, Judas, wanted to get some money, so he went and told the men who wanted to kill Jesus exactly where they could find him. Jesus knows what it's like to have friends who turn their back on you and hurt you.
"Or has anyone ever made fun of you?" More nodding. "Before the people went to have Jesus killed, they mocked him and teased him because he said he was the King. And even though he really was the King, they thought it was ridiculous, so they made him wear a pretend robe and put a crown--only it was made of thorns--on his head and made him march in front of all the townspeople. Jesus knows what it's like to have people laugh at you, even when you're not doing anything wrong."
One little boy, very concerned, pipes up. "But is Jesus dead now?"
"Hold on," I say. "We're not done with the story... So the soldiers took Jesus and they put him up on a cross. Do you know what a cross is?"
The kids who have heard this story before all say, "Yes." Among the kids who haven't, there is some confusion until I describe it a little and one of them says, "Is that like in Pirates of the Caribbean where those guys are hanging in the background?"
Um, possibly. I have yet to be able to sit through that film. But on I go to describe what happens next. The kids who are familiar with Good Friday don't bat an eye. But I am becoming acutely aware, as I briefly and without great detail reference the nails, the spear, the blood, the agony, that this story is hitting the new kids differently. I am beginning to realize just how horrid this story is. There is no G rating on the Easter narrative. When Jesus finally dies, a girl says, "Do I have to keep listening? This story is scary. And sad." Yes, dear, yes it is.
I have heard the story of Easter countless times. I have told it over and over again. But it's not often that I've been so aware of the darkness of the cross. Rarely have I really felt the confusion over this act of violence against God, against a good man, against a man who understands our deepest griefs and carries our sorrows. And never before have I felt such joyful relief as I arrive at the part of the story when I get to tell the kids that the tomb was EMPTY. That this man who died for our sins though he was sinless, this man who really and truly sympathizes with our pain and weakness, is no longer dead. He was dead, but he is not dead now. He is very much alive and his righteousness is very much ours who believe in His name!
Year after year, month after month, day after day, we reference the cross and the empty tomb. We hear it in sermons, we read it in books, we tell it amongst ourselves. And it can become stale. We can be like the kids who've heard this one a thousand times. Oh yes, Easter. When we celebrate how Jesus died on the cross and rose again. Wait. What?!
I don't want to lose the childlike view of the agonizing old rugged cross, nor the childlike wonder at the resurrection. I want more opportunities to see the story of Easter through the lens of a person who has never heard such a story before, through a child who sees the darkness of it and can't help but jump for joy at the ending (which is really a new beginning). And while I can't ever hear it again for the first time in reality, maybe my own ears can hear it in a fresh way if I keep telling it to those who haven't yet heard.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Sabbath Rest
For the last several months, we've been making a point of taking one day a week to spend time together as a family and enjoy a brief vacation from our regular work and tasks. We catch up on some sleep, read books, watch something worthwhile, play a game with the kids, and enjoy each other's company without the distraction of normal household duties. This takes some discipline, of course. It means that I need to have the house relatively tidy and the laundry done (and put away) by the night before. It means planning simple meals ahead of time or picking up some food so I don't spend the day in the kitchen (or at the store). But it's been worth the harder work and planning to have a day when I can lay all those normal cares aside and rest my mind and body in preparation for another week of busyness and work.
However, I've noticed something else that has cropped up with the Sabbath resting, too--something not so helpful. I've begun to catch myself putting my reliance on getting that day off, putting my trust in the chariot of extra sleep and the horses of relaxation. "I can get through this coming week," I think, "if I can just have this one day of peace and quiet."
But the fact remains that--try as hard as anyone might--normal life is no great respecter of Sabbaths, especially if there are kids around to enjoy them with you. Just the other week, after a pleasant full night of sleep and the expectation of a lovely day of R&R, Nathan had to run out briefly to help a friend. No sooner was he out the door when my dreams of refreshment were rudely dashed by The Great Diaper Explosion, which cruelly combined itself with a clogged drain and the previous night's bed-wetting accident (not mine) to create a Sabbath morning of laundry piles and shower scrubbing (and all this while pancakes were burning and children were screaming about all the upheaval). Yes, all-in-all a very restful Sabbath morning! Just what the doctor ordered....
However, I've noticed something else that has cropped up with the Sabbath resting, too--something not so helpful. I've begun to catch myself putting my reliance on getting that day off, putting my trust in the chariot of extra sleep and the horses of relaxation. "I can get through this coming week," I think, "if I can just have this one day of peace and quiet."
But the fact remains that--try as hard as anyone might--normal life is no great respecter of Sabbaths, especially if there are kids around to enjoy them with you. Just the other week, after a pleasant full night of sleep and the expectation of a lovely day of R&R, Nathan had to run out briefly to help a friend. No sooner was he out the door when my dreams of refreshment were rudely dashed by The Great Diaper Explosion, which cruelly combined itself with a clogged drain and the previous night's bed-wetting accident (not mine) to create a Sabbath morning of laundry piles and shower scrubbing (and all this while pancakes were burning and children were screaming about all the upheaval). Yes, all-in-all a very restful Sabbath morning! Just what the doctor ordered....
Monday, February 03, 2014
Dear Mothers, Pastors' Wives and Other Invisible Servants
Do you ever wonder about the value of your backstage service?
It's been a season of some "invisibility" for me around here, and I'm feeling it. There have been events I wanted to be at, times I wanted to meet people and be a tangible part of our work here, and for one reason or another, I've ended up home alone with the kids while Nathan took part. Cold January nights alone have a way of making you question whether you're really as valuable to a ministry as those people who get to be the mouth-pieces, the leaders, the visible ones. And I know the sinfulness of my desire for human recognition and jealousy of those who are chosen to be on the visible front lines while I serve in the background, but that doesn't mean I don't still struggle with these feelings from time to time. So this week, I needed a reminder from myself... As our former pastor is fond of saying, "Don't forget in the darkness what you believed in the light." My post today is a letter I wrote years ago in a season of light to another ministry wife (somewhat adapted). It's written to a wife and mother, but these things really apply to any of the silent servants in the church.
Dear friend,
I think the desire to do something "noticeable" is a pretty common struggle for mothers, and is probably felt more in women whose husbands are in public ministry, because we see our husbands getting noticed all the time. While this is not a current struggle for me, it is certainly something I have struggled with in the past, and I'm sure will struggle with at times in the future [Ha! Here we are!], so the following words are as much a reminder and preparation for me as they are, hopefully, of help and encouragement to you.
It's been a season of some "invisibility" for me around here, and I'm feeling it. There have been events I wanted to be at, times I wanted to meet people and be a tangible part of our work here, and for one reason or another, I've ended up home alone with the kids while Nathan took part. Cold January nights alone have a way of making you question whether you're really as valuable to a ministry as those people who get to be the mouth-pieces, the leaders, the visible ones. And I know the sinfulness of my desire for human recognition and jealousy of those who are chosen to be on the visible front lines while I serve in the background, but that doesn't mean I don't still struggle with these feelings from time to time. So this week, I needed a reminder from myself... As our former pastor is fond of saying, "Don't forget in the darkness what you believed in the light." My post today is a letter I wrote years ago in a season of light to another ministry wife (somewhat adapted). It's written to a wife and mother, but these things really apply to any of the silent servants in the church.
Dear friend,
I think the desire to do something "noticeable" is a pretty common struggle for mothers, and is probably felt more in women whose husbands are in public ministry, because we see our husbands getting noticed all the time. While this is not a current struggle for me, it is certainly something I have struggled with in the past, and I'm sure will struggle with at times in the future [Ha! Here we are!], so the following words are as much a reminder and preparation for me as they are, hopefully, of help and encouragement to you.
Monday, January 20, 2014
The Blessing of a Simple Testimony: A Letter to My Daughter
On Saturday afternoon, we had the great joy of seeing our oldest daughter baptized, and my husband had the great honour of being the one to carry it out. Over the past while, as she was working on writing out her testimony, she expressed the concern that what she had to say about how she came to know Jesus was "boring". Here are my thoughts for her, and for any of you who struggle with the same feeling:
My dear daughter,
I want to say, first of all, how happy your daddy and I are that God has reached into your life and called you to be his own daughter, that he is passing the faith he has given us on to the next generation. It is a joy for us to witness and participate in your baptism, and to call you not only daughter, but now sister as well!
I know that you have struggled with the feeling that your testimony is somehow lacking, somewhat boring. I understand because I, too, have a simple testimony. I remember praying "the sinner's prayer" (many times, actually) at the age of 5 or 6, and I really can't remember a time before that when I did not believe the Word of God and his saving gospel to be true. While I've had struggles (don't we all?!) and times of both lesser and greater growth, I still cannot point to a time in my life when I was not a Christian. And so there have been many times over the course of my life when I've heard or witnessed a testimony that involved great amounts of time and sin and struggle and fireworks, and I've wondered to myself why I couldn't have something more "interesting" to give as an answer to the question, "How did you come to follow Jesus?"
My dear daughter,
I want to say, first of all, how happy your daddy and I are that God has reached into your life and called you to be his own daughter, that he is passing the faith he has given us on to the next generation. It is a joy for us to witness and participate in your baptism, and to call you not only daughter, but now sister as well!
I know that you have struggled with the feeling that your testimony is somehow lacking, somewhat boring. I understand because I, too, have a simple testimony. I remember praying "the sinner's prayer" (many times, actually) at the age of 5 or 6, and I really can't remember a time before that when I did not believe the Word of God and his saving gospel to be true. While I've had struggles (don't we all?!) and times of both lesser and greater growth, I still cannot point to a time in my life when I was not a Christian. And so there have been many times over the course of my life when I've heard or witnessed a testimony that involved great amounts of time and sin and struggle and fireworks, and I've wondered to myself why I couldn't have something more "interesting" to give as an answer to the question, "How did you come to follow Jesus?"
Friday, December 06, 2013
The End of the Matter (Meditations on Ecclesiastes)
Ecclesiastes shows us a world that is marred by sin, condemned to futility, full of oppression and evil. Even though there are joys in life, sometimes it seems that we have been forgotten, that God has abandoned this world and left us to fend for ourselves. In the midst of such circumstances, all of us are on a search for meaning in life, a way to reconcile the fact of our existence in time and space with the apparent chaos and coincidence and futility of so much of what goes on under the sun.
We have seen that ambition and good deeds do not secure us an eternal remembrance, that the ultimate outcome of the universe is out of our control, that some of our questions will not be answered on this side of eternity. So what is one to do? Is there any point to a search for meaning? Or does each individual find their own way to make meaning for themself, something just quenching enough to that thirst for eternal life?
Some will go on searching endlessly. They will go on making books and books of speculation on the matter. They will study and search, always learning but never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth (Eccl. 12:12, 2 Tim. 3:7), because in truth, they love the study and speculation too much to ever accept a final answer.
But for those who are willing to listen, who want the truth no matter what implications it has for them, the author of Ecclesiastes offers The Answer. After all of his weighing of the futilities of life and the joys of life, after all of his study and asking and thinking, he comes down to "the end of the matter", and it is this: "Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil."
We have seen that ambition and good deeds do not secure us an eternal remembrance, that the ultimate outcome of the universe is out of our control, that some of our questions will not be answered on this side of eternity. So what is one to do? Is there any point to a search for meaning? Or does each individual find their own way to make meaning for themself, something just quenching enough to that thirst for eternal life?
Some will go on searching endlessly. They will go on making books and books of speculation on the matter. They will study and search, always learning but never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth (Eccl. 12:12, 2 Tim. 3:7), because in truth, they love the study and speculation too much to ever accept a final answer.
But for those who are willing to listen, who want the truth no matter what implications it has for them, the author of Ecclesiastes offers The Answer. After all of his weighing of the futilities of life and the joys of life, after all of his study and asking and thinking, he comes down to "the end of the matter", and it is this: "Fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil."
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Achieving Eternity (Meditations on Ecclesiastes)
Do you want to live forever? Regardless of whether you believe it is possible or not, most of us live our lives in pursuit of this goal. We do our best at our work, we strive to realize our dreams, we do great things, we try to make the world a better place, we want to be good friends or good parents... And while we do these things in part because it makes us happy, most of us would have to honestly say that we also do them because we want our achievements, our memory, our good works, our descendants to live on after us. We seek eternity by means of works that will last long after we are gone. We may be dead and in the ground, but our memory will live on in the hearts of those that knew us or benefit from the things we accomplished.
Ecclesiastes is a book about seeking eternity. Though it only mentions the word once, the idea is present in virtually every chapter of the book. Its characters, including its author, are people who seek wisdom and knowledge, or who build great architectural edifices, or who attain high political offices, or who are very religious and want to do great things for God. Some of them are incredibly innovative. Others have large families given to them to care for. There are men and women, kings and lay people, young people and old people, wise people and foolish people, wealthy nobility and the humble poor. And the vast majority of them are seeking eternity by means of a life well-lived, whatever that may mean to each of them. Sound like any world you know?
Of course, this is also no surprise, because Ecclesiastes tells us that God "has put eternity into man's heart". We are created with a desire for immortality imprinted on our very being. Elsewhere in the Bible, we are told that man was made to live forever. But he has been thwarted by sin and is now universally condemned to death. We who are made with eternity in our hearts now have a 100% chance of dying. But this death sentence does not stop us from seeking the immortality we should have had. You will rarely meet a person who could care less about how they will be remembered. Even those who do great evil are often seeking a name for themselves. Better to be infamous for the rest of human history for some terrible deed than to lie forgotten in an unmarked grave with the vast majority of the human race.
The problem with achieving eternity via long-standing accomplishments (however noble) or via a good name is that we have no guarantee that anything we do in this life will outlive us. You can spend your days toiling to build up your business and have no guarantee that the person who takes over after you won't run it into the ground. You can be a mother who pours her life into her children, giving them every chance at success, teaching them with all wisdom and insight to live a life of godliness and you have no guarantee that they will live on after you as godly, successful people. You can't even guarantee that they will outlive you! And even if we could guarantee good results, "there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after." So, "what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?" (Eccl. 1:2, 11). Death comes for us all (another prominent theme in Ecclesiastes), and regardless of what we have done or how often our name is mentioned 500 years from now, we will be forgotten. Think about the handful of names you know from history (out of the billions who have ever lived), and then think about how much deconstruction, reconstruction, reanalysis and "new discoveries!" are part of our knowledge about history. We don't even know those people for who they really, really were.
No, we have no hope of achieving immortality for ourselves, no matter how hard we try. We who are made with eternity in our hearts are doomed to be lost and forgotten to the running sands of time. BUT, "whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it" (Eccl. 3:14). God who put eternity in our hearts also only does that which lasts forever. This means that the only way we will ever live on forever is through participating in God's enduring work. And he invites us into it! In fact, he offers us an exchange: he will take our broken, half-hearted, mediocre, forgettable work, as well as the best, most pleasing achievements we have to offer (which are still just as perishable as we are); and in its place, he will give us the perfect, everlasting, finished work of his son, Jesus. When we admit that we cannot make eternity for ourselves, and instead put all our trust and hope in God's finished and enduring work at the cross of Jesus, then, and only then, do we gain unending life. "And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3)
This may mean that we live a life that will be forgotten by mankind. It may mean living in a way that doesn't seem very successful to others, and even at many times to ourselves. But it is our only sure hope for eternity, and that makes it a life worth living.
Ecclesiastes is a book about seeking eternity. Though it only mentions the word once, the idea is present in virtually every chapter of the book. Its characters, including its author, are people who seek wisdom and knowledge, or who build great architectural edifices, or who attain high political offices, or who are very religious and want to do great things for God. Some of them are incredibly innovative. Others have large families given to them to care for. There are men and women, kings and lay people, young people and old people, wise people and foolish people, wealthy nobility and the humble poor. And the vast majority of them are seeking eternity by means of a life well-lived, whatever that may mean to each of them. Sound like any world you know?
Of course, this is also no surprise, because Ecclesiastes tells us that God "has put eternity into man's heart". We are created with a desire for immortality imprinted on our very being. Elsewhere in the Bible, we are told that man was made to live forever. But he has been thwarted by sin and is now universally condemned to death. We who are made with eternity in our hearts now have a 100% chance of dying. But this death sentence does not stop us from seeking the immortality we should have had. You will rarely meet a person who could care less about how they will be remembered. Even those who do great evil are often seeking a name for themselves. Better to be infamous for the rest of human history for some terrible deed than to lie forgotten in an unmarked grave with the vast majority of the human race.
The problem with achieving eternity via long-standing accomplishments (however noble) or via a good name is that we have no guarantee that anything we do in this life will outlive us. You can spend your days toiling to build up your business and have no guarantee that the person who takes over after you won't run it into the ground. You can be a mother who pours her life into her children, giving them every chance at success, teaching them with all wisdom and insight to live a life of godliness and you have no guarantee that they will live on after you as godly, successful people. You can't even guarantee that they will outlive you! And even if we could guarantee good results, "there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after." So, "what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?" (Eccl. 1:2, 11). Death comes for us all (another prominent theme in Ecclesiastes), and regardless of what we have done or how often our name is mentioned 500 years from now, we will be forgotten. Think about the handful of names you know from history (out of the billions who have ever lived), and then think about how much deconstruction, reconstruction, reanalysis and "new discoveries!" are part of our knowledge about history. We don't even know those people for who they really, really were.
No, we have no hope of achieving immortality for ourselves, no matter how hard we try. We who are made with eternity in our hearts are doomed to be lost and forgotten to the running sands of time. BUT, "whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it" (Eccl. 3:14). God who put eternity in our hearts also only does that which lasts forever. This means that the only way we will ever live on forever is through participating in God's enduring work. And he invites us into it! In fact, he offers us an exchange: he will take our broken, half-hearted, mediocre, forgettable work, as well as the best, most pleasing achievements we have to offer (which are still just as perishable as we are); and in its place, he will give us the perfect, everlasting, finished work of his son, Jesus. When we admit that we cannot make eternity for ourselves, and instead put all our trust and hope in God's finished and enduring work at the cross of Jesus, then, and only then, do we gain unending life. "And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3)
This may mean that we live a life that will be forgotten by mankind. It may mean living in a way that doesn't seem very successful to others, and even at many times to ourselves. But it is our only sure hope for eternity, and that makes it a life worth living.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Room For All
"The evangelical culture ties together faithfulness with extroversion. The emphasis is on community, on participating in more and more programs and events, on meeting more and more people. It's a constant tension for many introverts that they're not living that out. And in a religious world, there's more at stake when you feel that tension. It doesn't feel like 'I'm not doing as well as I'd like.' It feels like 'God isn't pleased with me.'"
Is there room in the church for introverts? This is one of the questions Susan Cain asks in her fascinating--and fairly helpful--book Quiet
. (She's not just picking on the church--she asks the same about the business and education worlds.) Cain writes about the difficulty fitting in and flourishing that introverts may find in all the community- and interaction-oriented activities in the typical evangelical church and concludes that we have "taken the Extrovert Ideal to its logical extreme... If you don't love Jesus out loud, then it must not be real love. It's not enough to forge your own spiritual connection to the divine; it must be displayed publicly. Is it any wonder that introverts... start to question their own hearts?" (emphasis hers).
So, is there room in the church for introverts? Yes, yes, and yes again for good measure! It is true that some things done in church services and meetings make introverts feel uncomfortable (a common example is the "greet your neighbour" moment). And yes, some of these things may be done with little thought given to how introverts, or new people, or people with disabilities or others might react. But the simple fact of the matter is that there are many parts of being a Christian that are biblically commanded that make introverts feel uncomfortable. Show hospitality to strangers; do not neglect the assembly of believers; we believe and so we also speak; be very bold... Does that mean God loves extroverts more? By no means! There are plenty of biblical commandments that introverts may find more simple, while the extrovert sitting next to them is squirming(2): be slow to speak (and quick to hear, though McHugh has written a good post on the stereotype of introverts as good listeners and extroverts as poor ones), let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only what is useful for building others up, pray, meditate on God's word day and night... And then there are those that are hard for all of us, like "bless those who persecute you".
The truth is that God's standards are not all easy for anyone to follow, whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, a child or an adult, a man or a woman, rural or urban, Chinese, German, Canadian or Rwandan. There are parts of God's character that some of us find easier to follow than others, but each of us will come across points that make us uncomfortable, that require serious effort. In fact, we will all encounter areas in following Jesus that require nothing less than the power of God's spirit working through us to accomplish, our own personal offering being nothing but weakness and insufficiency!
That is how I have sometimes felt about participating in church gatherings. Some days that's hard for me--I feel the nagging temptation to stay home and be quiet. And yes, there's a good time and a place for quiet, for sure. But one of the defining characteristics of a follower of Jesus is that he is no longer his own, no longer independent. God makes him a member of Jesus' body, to work together with other Christians as members of the same body. That's pretty intense and intimate imagery for an introvert! That's getting into my space just a little more than I'd like! And that's why I need God's grace to live this way, just like the stereotypical extrovert needs God's grace to sit still and meditate on God's Word for a while, even though friends are calling on her to come be social.
Furthermore, whether it is "comfortable" or not, loving Jesus out loud is part of truly loving Jesus. James says that faith without works is dead, and the Bible is full of exhortations to speak God's truth and declare God's praise. If no one else on the planet ever sees you act or speak in a way that demonstrates love for Jesus, you should question your heart, just as you might be questioned on your love for your spouse if you never did or said anything public to show it. However, "public faith" doesn't mean you have to be standing up on the pew, shouting for all the world to hear. Yes, it might make you uncomfortable nonetheless. But Christianity isn't about being comfortable--not in this life anyway. We worship a crucified Jesus and he was NOT comfortable on that cross! But he went there so we didn't have to take the punishment for all the times we are too afraid to love Jesus out loud, for all the times we don't pray, don't invite that lonely person over when we feel the Spirit nudging us, don't shut up and really listen. And he gives us his spirit so that we can have grace and power to live like he did, even when it doesn't suit our personality profile or our dreams.
I know for a fact that there are aspects of Christianity that make plenty of extroverts feel like God isn't pleased with them, like they're not living up to His standards. But the point is that none of us can meet them all. That's why we need Jesus--because we are weak, imperfect people who can't do it on our own. (In fact, the only people Jesus said he didn't come for were the self-righteous, who think they can please God in their own strength.) As my husband likes to say, we don't need a crutch; we need a stretcher! It's also why we need the church--we need the strength of our brothers and sisters to help our weaknesses and they need us for the same reason.
And this is where God gets the glory: when he takes weak, sinful, needy people, gives them Jesus' record of perfection--whereby we also gain his eternal pleasure and affirmation--and puts all our different personalities, giftings, backgrounds and, yes, weaknesses together in one body called the Church, and then shows the power of his Spirit when he works through these same people to transform the world. It's not about me and my temperament needs. It's about him and his glory. So come in, all you introverts! Join us, all you extroverts! Follow Jesus, all you men, women, boys and girls! And bring them in from the four corners of the earth!
"Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free [introvert, extrovert]; but Christ is all, and in all." (Colossians 3:11)
A couple questions to consider:
-Are there things we do in our churches that unnecessarily cause certain kinds of people discomfort? Is there a more accommodating way we could accomplish the same goal? Are we showing appreciation for the quieter servants among us?
-Are there things that God has asked us to do that I am avoiding because it doesn't suit my "natural inclinations" or temperament?
_______________________________________
Notes:
1) As described by Cain, I think Adam McHugh comes across as fairly negative toward the Church and its expectations of introverts. However, in his own personal writings, he is much more balanced, and offers both critique of the church's dealings with introverts AND honest, helpful encouragement to introverts who need to grow in the way they function in the church community.
2) The whole discussion of introverts and extroverts is unfortunately based largely on stereotypes. I'd like to explore this a little more in another post, but for the time being, when I use the terms "introvert" and "extrovert", I'm using them according to standard (western) cultural usage. You may or may not fit the stereotype.
- Adam McHugh (1), as quoted in Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
by Susan CainIs there room in the church for introverts? This is one of the questions Susan Cain asks in her fascinating--and fairly helpful--book Quiet
. (She's not just picking on the church--she asks the same about the business and education worlds.) Cain writes about the difficulty fitting in and flourishing that introverts may find in all the community- and interaction-oriented activities in the typical evangelical church and concludes that we have "taken the Extrovert Ideal to its logical extreme... If you don't love Jesus out loud, then it must not be real love. It's not enough to forge your own spiritual connection to the divine; it must be displayed publicly. Is it any wonder that introverts... start to question their own hearts?" (emphasis hers).So, is there room in the church for introverts? Yes, yes, and yes again for good measure! It is true that some things done in church services and meetings make introverts feel uncomfortable (a common example is the "greet your neighbour" moment). And yes, some of these things may be done with little thought given to how introverts, or new people, or people with disabilities or others might react. But the simple fact of the matter is that there are many parts of being a Christian that are biblically commanded that make introverts feel uncomfortable. Show hospitality to strangers; do not neglect the assembly of believers; we believe and so we also speak; be very bold... Does that mean God loves extroverts more? By no means! There are plenty of biblical commandments that introverts may find more simple, while the extrovert sitting next to them is squirming(2): be slow to speak (and quick to hear, though McHugh has written a good post on the stereotype of introverts as good listeners and extroverts as poor ones), let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only what is useful for building others up, pray, meditate on God's word day and night... And then there are those that are hard for all of us, like "bless those who persecute you".
The truth is that God's standards are not all easy for anyone to follow, whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, a child or an adult, a man or a woman, rural or urban, Chinese, German, Canadian or Rwandan. There are parts of God's character that some of us find easier to follow than others, but each of us will come across points that make us uncomfortable, that require serious effort. In fact, we will all encounter areas in following Jesus that require nothing less than the power of God's spirit working through us to accomplish, our own personal offering being nothing but weakness and insufficiency!
That is how I have sometimes felt about participating in church gatherings. Some days that's hard for me--I feel the nagging temptation to stay home and be quiet. And yes, there's a good time and a place for quiet, for sure. But one of the defining characteristics of a follower of Jesus is that he is no longer his own, no longer independent. God makes him a member of Jesus' body, to work together with other Christians as members of the same body. That's pretty intense and intimate imagery for an introvert! That's getting into my space just a little more than I'd like! And that's why I need God's grace to live this way, just like the stereotypical extrovert needs God's grace to sit still and meditate on God's Word for a while, even though friends are calling on her to come be social.
Furthermore, whether it is "comfortable" or not, loving Jesus out loud is part of truly loving Jesus. James says that faith without works is dead, and the Bible is full of exhortations to speak God's truth and declare God's praise. If no one else on the planet ever sees you act or speak in a way that demonstrates love for Jesus, you should question your heart, just as you might be questioned on your love for your spouse if you never did or said anything public to show it. However, "public faith" doesn't mean you have to be standing up on the pew, shouting for all the world to hear. Yes, it might make you uncomfortable nonetheless. But Christianity isn't about being comfortable--not in this life anyway. We worship a crucified Jesus and he was NOT comfortable on that cross! But he went there so we didn't have to take the punishment for all the times we are too afraid to love Jesus out loud, for all the times we don't pray, don't invite that lonely person over when we feel the Spirit nudging us, don't shut up and really listen. And he gives us his spirit so that we can have grace and power to live like he did, even when it doesn't suit our personality profile or our dreams.
I know for a fact that there are aspects of Christianity that make plenty of extroverts feel like God isn't pleased with them, like they're not living up to His standards. But the point is that none of us can meet them all. That's why we need Jesus--because we are weak, imperfect people who can't do it on our own. (In fact, the only people Jesus said he didn't come for were the self-righteous, who think they can please God in their own strength.) As my husband likes to say, we don't need a crutch; we need a stretcher! It's also why we need the church--we need the strength of our brothers and sisters to help our weaknesses and they need us for the same reason.
And this is where God gets the glory: when he takes weak, sinful, needy people, gives them Jesus' record of perfection--whereby we also gain his eternal pleasure and affirmation--and puts all our different personalities, giftings, backgrounds and, yes, weaknesses together in one body called the Church, and then shows the power of his Spirit when he works through these same people to transform the world. It's not about me and my temperament needs. It's about him and his glory. So come in, all you introverts! Join us, all you extroverts! Follow Jesus, all you men, women, boys and girls! And bring them in from the four corners of the earth!
"Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free [introvert, extrovert]; but Christ is all, and in all." (Colossians 3:11)
A couple questions to consider:
-Are there things we do in our churches that unnecessarily cause certain kinds of people discomfort? Is there a more accommodating way we could accomplish the same goal? Are we showing appreciation for the quieter servants among us?
-Are there things that God has asked us to do that I am avoiding because it doesn't suit my "natural inclinations" or temperament?
_______________________________________
Notes:
1) As described by Cain, I think Adam McHugh comes across as fairly negative toward the Church and its expectations of introverts. However, in his own personal writings, he is much more balanced, and offers both critique of the church's dealings with introverts AND honest, helpful encouragement to introverts who need to grow in the way they function in the church community.
2) The whole discussion of introverts and extroverts is unfortunately based largely on stereotypes. I'd like to explore this a little more in another post, but for the time being, when I use the terms "introvert" and "extrovert", I'm using them according to standard (western) cultural usage. You may or may not fit the stereotype.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Attaining the Unattainable
We live in a world of ideals, many of them conflicting. Our culture prizes the ideal of "being true to myself" (if I can only figure out who I am!), while at the same time setting forth ideals of what great people look like, talk like and find interesting. I've read this week (yes, we're settled in enough that I've actually done some reading!) about the modern "Extrovert Ideal", which prefers charisma, a polished public persona and enthusiastic, engaging speaking abilities above quiet reflection, backstage service, awkward genius and an unassuming personality. I've also read about idealistic body image advertising, and how companies not only blur out celluloid and wrinkles, but slim and reproportion models into a computer generated image that fits with--and entrenches--our cultural ideals of beauty. I could list several more examples, but we also live in a culture that prizes brevity, so I will refrain.
The problem with these ideals is that they are often unattainable to the average human. Who I want to be depends far too often on who I think others think I should be, which I can never fully figure out. I can do my best to polish my speech and be out there, chatting it up with strangers, but my God-given personality is far more suited to quiet (or not so quiet) interaction with small groups of familiar people, and that's my natural gravitation. And I will never be 5'11" and 100 lbs with perfect skin and curves in all the "right" places, no matter how hard I try. In fact, the desperate struggle to reach these ideals (and others) has caused many people--myself included--confusion, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and a generally unhealthy and low view of self and others.
The good news is that the Bible doesn't prize any of these ideals. It says I'm made in God's image (!), and that is who I should be. It holds up as heroes of the faith not only loud passionate people like Peter, but also those who "pondered these things in [their hearts]". It says it's the meek who will inherit the earth. "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain"; it's the woman who fears the Lord who is to be praised. (And, might I add, there is no brevity in Psalm 119's exposition of the beauty of the Law!) What freedom there is in God's Word from the slavish drive to follow cultural ideals of personality, beauty, wealth and success!
But there's some bad news, too. The Bible also has an ideal that it holds up. And it's God's ideal, so it's the one we should listen to. AND it's even more unattainable than any ideal we could ever dream up. God's ideal is perfection in all areas of our life, for every single moment of every hour of all the years of our life! The Bible says I'm made in God's image, and that is who I should be (!). It says, "Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect." It says I'm not ever to hold anything dearer than God himself, even when a cool new piece of technology comes out or a great new friend comes along. It says I'm to love my neighbour as much as I love myself (and boy, is that ever a lot!), even when she hates me and continually voices her negative opinion of my house, my kids, my job, my faith or whatever. It says I'm to live a life of continual prayer, thankfulness, contentment and praise, never wavering in my faith in God's righteousness, even when life circumstances are painful and incomprehensible. It also says that one small departure from this standard is enough to disqualify me for life! And yet, if I haven't already figured it out for myself, this same Word also proclaims that I cannot possibly keep this standard because "there is no one righteous, no not one," and, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." If I wasn't depressed by vainly trying to attain a charismatic personality with a stunning body and succinct speech, all the while holding firmly to a non-conformist value of just being myself, surely this impossible demand for perfection in all things is enough to send me over the edge!
And that is why, when I think about impossible requirements, I'm so thankful that there's more good news! We can't attain this unattainable standard. But someone did. And what's more, that someone did it not just for his own benefit, but for ours as well. That someone is Jesus, and he lived a life of complete perfection, following God's standards to the smallest point. And then he gave up this perfect life, taking the mockery and hatred of other humans and the wrath of God we deserved, and clothed us in his righteousness, giving us his perfect record of obedience. And even now he stands in heaven, interceding on our behalf, holding up his perfect record before God the Father and proclaiming that it belongs to us, so that in God's eyes, through Jesus, we actually attain the unattainable!
The Bible proclaims that God takes dirty, sinful, awkward, socially maligned individuals and sings over them, loving them and adopting them into His own family, fully accepting them on the basis of His Son's perfection. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh,could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
We may be ordinary, quiet, fat, short, balding, poor. We may have spider veins and crooked teeth and hate public speaking with a vengeance. We may feel like our earthly existence is acknowledged by no one, or like we're unusually loud or too long-winded, or too this, that and the other thing. And we are most definitely sinful, falling far short of God's requirements--the only requirements that really matter in the end. But if we are trusting in Jesus' work on our behalf, even while we still have far to grow in living according to God's standards in this life, we are misfits no longer. We belong fully to God, who grants and credits to us the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if we had never sinned nor been sinners, as if we had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for us. All we need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart (Heidelberg Catechism, Question 60). And that's good news in a world of unattainable ideals!
The problem with these ideals is that they are often unattainable to the average human. Who I want to be depends far too often on who I think others think I should be, which I can never fully figure out. I can do my best to polish my speech and be out there, chatting it up with strangers, but my God-given personality is far more suited to quiet (or not so quiet) interaction with small groups of familiar people, and that's my natural gravitation. And I will never be 5'11" and 100 lbs with perfect skin and curves in all the "right" places, no matter how hard I try. In fact, the desperate struggle to reach these ideals (and others) has caused many people--myself included--confusion, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and a generally unhealthy and low view of self and others.
The good news is that the Bible doesn't prize any of these ideals. It says I'm made in God's image (!), and that is who I should be. It holds up as heroes of the faith not only loud passionate people like Peter, but also those who "pondered these things in [their hearts]". It says it's the meek who will inherit the earth. "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain"; it's the woman who fears the Lord who is to be praised. (And, might I add, there is no brevity in Psalm 119's exposition of the beauty of the Law!) What freedom there is in God's Word from the slavish drive to follow cultural ideals of personality, beauty, wealth and success!
But there's some bad news, too. The Bible also has an ideal that it holds up. And it's God's ideal, so it's the one we should listen to. AND it's even more unattainable than any ideal we could ever dream up. God's ideal is perfection in all areas of our life, for every single moment of every hour of all the years of our life! The Bible says I'm made in God's image, and that is who I should be (!). It says, "Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect." It says I'm not ever to hold anything dearer than God himself, even when a cool new piece of technology comes out or a great new friend comes along. It says I'm to love my neighbour as much as I love myself (and boy, is that ever a lot!), even when she hates me and continually voices her negative opinion of my house, my kids, my job, my faith or whatever. It says I'm to live a life of continual prayer, thankfulness, contentment and praise, never wavering in my faith in God's righteousness, even when life circumstances are painful and incomprehensible. It also says that one small departure from this standard is enough to disqualify me for life! And yet, if I haven't already figured it out for myself, this same Word also proclaims that I cannot possibly keep this standard because "there is no one righteous, no not one," and, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." If I wasn't depressed by vainly trying to attain a charismatic personality with a stunning body and succinct speech, all the while holding firmly to a non-conformist value of just being myself, surely this impossible demand for perfection in all things is enough to send me over the edge!
And that is why, when I think about impossible requirements, I'm so thankful that there's more good news! We can't attain this unattainable standard. But someone did. And what's more, that someone did it not just for his own benefit, but for ours as well. That someone is Jesus, and he lived a life of complete perfection, following God's standards to the smallest point. And then he gave up this perfect life, taking the mockery and hatred of other humans and the wrath of God we deserved, and clothed us in his righteousness, giving us his perfect record of obedience. And even now he stands in heaven, interceding on our behalf, holding up his perfect record before God the Father and proclaiming that it belongs to us, so that in God's eyes, through Jesus, we actually attain the unattainable!
The Bible proclaims that God takes dirty, sinful, awkward, socially maligned individuals and sings over them, loving them and adopting them into His own family, fully accepting them on the basis of His Son's perfection. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh,could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)
We may be ordinary, quiet, fat, short, balding, poor. We may have spider veins and crooked teeth and hate public speaking with a vengeance. We may feel like our earthly existence is acknowledged by no one, or like we're unusually loud or too long-winded, or too this, that and the other thing. And we are most definitely sinful, falling far short of God's requirements--the only requirements that really matter in the end. But if we are trusting in Jesus' work on our behalf, even while we still have far to grow in living according to God's standards in this life, we are misfits no longer. We belong fully to God, who grants and credits to us the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if we had never sinned nor been sinners, as if we had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for us. All we need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart (Heidelberg Catechism, Question 60). And that's good news in a world of unattainable ideals!
Monday, April 01, 2013
When Easter is Dry
The glorious freedom proclaimed by the cross, and the amazing hope of eternal life shouted by the empty tomb are things to be celebrated with tears, loud singing and exuberant joy. And often, these truths bring just such a reaction from my soul. But I'll be honest: this particular Good Friday and Easter Sunday, my emotions didn't cooperate. We're in the middle of a lot of changes and I was tired, physically and emotionally. I spent more of my thoughts on how my two-year-old was behaving during the Good Friday service than on the wonder of my Saviour's death for me. And Easter Sunday started with kids up at a crazy hour clamoring for candy. When we met as a church, I felt pretty emotionally flat-lined. At least until the subtle guilt started rising... At that point, emotions have a tendancy to go south. I mean, what kind of Christian am I if I'm not leaping for joy on the day that is the highlight of the Christian calendar? A brief dry spell that would be just that on any other day suddenly seems reason enough to doubt my salvation on a day when I'm supposed to be especially devout.
Have you ever felt that? Ever had a Christmas season when the miracle of the incarnation got lost in the busyness? Or a Thankgiving when gratitude was not particularly abundant? Or an Easter when you really just wanted to go back to bed? It seems to me that while lack of wonder and awe and thankfulness expose our weakness and sin on any given day, they feel to us to be especially condemning when the calendar says it's time to be amazed and grateful.
And that is precisely why I am thankful for the events that inspire the Easter weekend celebration. The cross proclaims that I am justified by faith alone, not by the measure of my fervent devotion on Good Friday (or any other day). It is faith in Christ and his work that saves me, and not the number of tears I shed because of it. And the resurrection cries out that death and sin have been fully overcome, and that the day is fast approaching when it will be impossible to feel anything BUT joy and delight at the magnitude of Christ's work on our behalf!
The cross and the empty tomb should move us to celebration. But when instead our hearts fail to leap and our soul feels dry, it is the cross and the empty tomb that free us from the condemnation of the laws of religious observance. It is the cross and the empty tomb that respond to the devil's accusations of failure and apathy with the cry, "No! I paid for these sins, and I am making this cold heart new!"
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us... For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation (including spiritual dryness), will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:1-4,33-39)
Have you ever felt that? Ever had a Christmas season when the miracle of the incarnation got lost in the busyness? Or a Thankgiving when gratitude was not particularly abundant? Or an Easter when you really just wanted to go back to bed? It seems to me that while lack of wonder and awe and thankfulness expose our weakness and sin on any given day, they feel to us to be especially condemning when the calendar says it's time to be amazed and grateful.
And that is precisely why I am thankful for the events that inspire the Easter weekend celebration. The cross proclaims that I am justified by faith alone, not by the measure of my fervent devotion on Good Friday (or any other day). It is faith in Christ and his work that saves me, and not the number of tears I shed because of it. And the resurrection cries out that death and sin have been fully overcome, and that the day is fast approaching when it will be impossible to feel anything BUT joy and delight at the magnitude of Christ's work on our behalf!
The cross and the empty tomb should move us to celebration. But when instead our hearts fail to leap and our soul feels dry, it is the cross and the empty tomb that free us from the condemnation of the laws of religious observance. It is the cross and the empty tomb that respond to the devil's accusations of failure and apathy with the cry, "No! I paid for these sins, and I am making this cold heart new!"
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us... For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation (including spiritual dryness), will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:1-4,33-39)
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Not As Those Who Have No Hope!
I have a 5 year old and a 7 year old, and I cannot imagine what it would be like to send them off to school one morning and find out a short time later that they had been gunned down in their classroom. The thought literally makes me feel ill. And so I grieve for the parents in Newtown, Connecticut who faced such a horrible tragedy last Friday, and who will spend this Christmas--and likely many others--weeping over the loss of their little ones. Gifts already purchased with no one to receive them, plans already made with no one to take along, empty beds with no one to kiss goodnight... this is every parent's worst nightmare.
And yet, this is exactly what God the Father did in love one Christmas two thousand years ago. He sent his Son off into our world as an infant, a child just like our little ones, and he did it not unsuspectingly, but knowing full-well that his Son would be hated, rejected and put to death on a horrid cross though he was completely innocent, having committed no sin, being crucified for no good reason (on the part of the murderers) other than their jealousy, anger, self-righteousness and amusement. He bore the grief of a bereaved parent; he knows the agony of losing an innocent child. He sympathises in complete understanding with every parent who has ever lost or will ever lose a child.
But because of this very sacrifice, we do not mourn as those who have no hope. Because of Jesus' death on our behalf, for our sins, we who believe gain the right to become children of God! And because Jesus not only died, but conquered that terrible enemy Death when he rose again on the third day, we who believe will never truly die. Death no longer has dominion over us because we are forever fully alive in Christ!
I don't know the reason for Friday's events. Only God does. But I do know that the death of every person on this planet--tragic or not--points to our desperate need for a Saviour who will come to rescue us from the awful curse of sin. And Christmas points to the joyous news that this Saviour has actually come and that he has broken the curse of death by his resurrection from the dead, so that we can indeed say, "Death is swallowed up in victory; O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
As I celebrate Christmas this year, with my 2, 5, 7 and 8 year olds happily sitting around the tree--Lord willing--I will mourn with the families in Newtown who are mourning, and at the very same time, rejoice in the fact that Jesus' birth was the ushering in of a new hope that signals the end of all such tragedies, all such searches for meaning and answers, all such evil and death.
So sing loudly with us this Christmas, "Joy to the world; the Lord has come! Let earth receive her king...No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessing known far as the curse is found!"
Hallelujah! Come Lord Jesus!
______________________________________________________________________
A few of the multitude of really good links related to Newtown, if you haven't seen them already:
School Shootings and Spiritual Warfare: Russell Moore on who the real enemy is in this
And Slew the Little Childer and follow-up post That Will Be Soon Enough, both by Douglas Wilson on what (and what not) to say immediately following horrific events like this...
Faces Do you know that on the same day 27 innocent people died in Newtown, 30 children in China were injured in a random, but apparently not unprecedented, attack by a knife-wielding man? And helpless children and others around the world face these horrors on a sometimes daily basis... Having seen some of the effects of such carnage in Rwanda several years ago, I appreciated this post from Tanzania.
The Desiring God blog also has a whole host of good links, some specifically about Newtown, others about suffering in general, among them How Jesus Comes to Newtown and a video version of John Piper reading his relevant poem The Innkeeper.
And yet, this is exactly what God the Father did in love one Christmas two thousand years ago. He sent his Son off into our world as an infant, a child just like our little ones, and he did it not unsuspectingly, but knowing full-well that his Son would be hated, rejected and put to death on a horrid cross though he was completely innocent, having committed no sin, being crucified for no good reason (on the part of the murderers) other than their jealousy, anger, self-righteousness and amusement. He bore the grief of a bereaved parent; he knows the agony of losing an innocent child. He sympathises in complete understanding with every parent who has ever lost or will ever lose a child.
But because of this very sacrifice, we do not mourn as those who have no hope. Because of Jesus' death on our behalf, for our sins, we who believe gain the right to become children of God! And because Jesus not only died, but conquered that terrible enemy Death when he rose again on the third day, we who believe will never truly die. Death no longer has dominion over us because we are forever fully alive in Christ!
I don't know the reason for Friday's events. Only God does. But I do know that the death of every person on this planet--tragic or not--points to our desperate need for a Saviour who will come to rescue us from the awful curse of sin. And Christmas points to the joyous news that this Saviour has actually come and that he has broken the curse of death by his resurrection from the dead, so that we can indeed say, "Death is swallowed up in victory; O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"
As I celebrate Christmas this year, with my 2, 5, 7 and 8 year olds happily sitting around the tree--Lord willing--I will mourn with the families in Newtown who are mourning, and at the very same time, rejoice in the fact that Jesus' birth was the ushering in of a new hope that signals the end of all such tragedies, all such searches for meaning and answers, all such evil and death.
So sing loudly with us this Christmas, "Joy to the world; the Lord has come! Let earth receive her king...No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessing known far as the curse is found!"
Hallelujah! Come Lord Jesus!
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
(Isaiah 61)
______________________________________________________________________
A few of the multitude of really good links related to Newtown, if you haven't seen them already:
School Shootings and Spiritual Warfare: Russell Moore on who the real enemy is in this
And Slew the Little Childer and follow-up post That Will Be Soon Enough, both by Douglas Wilson on what (and what not) to say immediately following horrific events like this...
Faces Do you know that on the same day 27 innocent people died in Newtown, 30 children in China were injured in a random, but apparently not unprecedented, attack by a knife-wielding man? And helpless children and others around the world face these horrors on a sometimes daily basis... Having seen some of the effects of such carnage in Rwanda several years ago, I appreciated this post from Tanzania.
The Desiring God blog also has a whole host of good links, some specifically about Newtown, others about suffering in general, among them How Jesus Comes to Newtown and a video version of John Piper reading his relevant poem The Innkeeper.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Mysterious Ways
"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, "They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in." And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.' And they did so." (Exodus 13:21-14:4)
God moves in a mysterious way,
his wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
and rides upon the storm...
Have you ever felt like you were on a circuitous path in life? Maybe you've given up much to move somewhere you were convinced God led you to go, and yet after some time earnestly seeking to follow God there, you ended up having to go right back to the place from which you came, or somewhere else you never dreamed or wanted to be, feeling like you had little or nothing to show for your sacrifice and upheaval? Or maybe you've taken the right job, followed the Lord's leading into the right ministry, gotten into the right relationship, or pursued that neighbour with the gospel as you believed the Holy Spirit was clearly pushing you to do, only to have no success, to see doors closed, to feel like a failure? We are often so quick, in these circumstances, to wonder when we misunderstood God's leading, where we fell into sin that we're being disciplined for, or if God really cares for us at all.
Israel understood this. I've always thought of their journey out of Egypt toward the Promised Land as a long, but continuous, path which only ended up as 40 years of wandering because of their sin of unbelief. But in reading Exodus 13-17 this time around, I was struck by those words in Ex. 14:2 where the LORD tells the people to TURN BACK. They were headed out of Egypt in victory as the LORD had commanded, and yet they suddenly find themselves going backwards in the direction of Egypt again, where God places them squarely between the Egyptians and an uncrossable sea. Under such circumstances, it really is not surprising that the Israelites respond by complaining to God that he had only rescued them from Egypt in order to kill them (14:10-12). It may not be the godly, faith-filled response of Moses (14:13-14), but it is often our natural human response. There have been times in our life when everything appears to be going "according to plan" ("whose plan?" is an entirely different question!), but there have been other times when we think God is clearly leading us in one direction, and yet it ends in apparent failure, or in years of wandering in the wilderness (see Ex. 16, 17) when we begin to wonder if we somehow fell off God's track. And it is easy in those times to question God, to question his faithfulness, to question his sovereignty, to question his goodness.
As Alec Motyer
points out, Christians can often simplistically attribute times of failure and suffering either to direct attacks of Satan, as if he's somehow bypassed God, or to our failing to follow God's will for our lives, living outside his purposes. But while Satan does attack (just as Pharaoh was on the attack), and believers do sin (the 40 years in the wilderness was discipline), it is clear here that Israel was led by the clear will of the LORD into wandering, hunger, thirst and battle. They didn't just come to the Red Sea and find Pharaoh behind them because they hadn't moved fast enough, or because Pharaoh overcame God's plan. They didn't head into the wilderness to encounter deadly hunger and thirst because they failed to praise God (see the song of Ex. 15 which is immediately followed by the desert trips in Ex. 16 and 17 where they almost die of thirst). They were led there by the pillar and the cloud--easy to miss because of chapter divisions--and the clear commands of God. And it is God who hardens Pharaoh's heart. The Israelites ended up by the Red Sea and in the wildernesses of Shur and Sin BECAUSE they were right in the centre of God's will and guidance.
Can we explain God's ways with Israel? Not much more than we can explain the mysteries of God's ways with us, which are sometimes deeply perplexing. The text of Exodus tells us that this was part of God's pre-ordained journey to the Promised Land and that his purpose involved the defeat of Pharaoh and the ability of the Egyptians (14:4) and the Israelites (14:30,31) to know that he is the LORD. But why he did it this way, we won't fully comprehend in this life. How much less then can we understand many of the directions our pilgimage to the Promised Land takes us, when we do not have the benefit of hindsight. One day we will see the bodies of our enemies on the shore (14:30), but when we are sitting between the rock and the hard place, the enemy in full pursuit, God's ways seem confusing and shrouded in darkness. When we are in the midst of the wilderness that seems to be way off the route to the land of milk and honey, we are often more aware of our thirst than of the fact that it is the LORD who led us there. At the same time as we decry the "prosperity gospel", far too often we live as if following God will bring us success and ease, and are confused when the path is hard and makes no sense to us. Will we respond like Israel, crying out in confusion, grumbling and anger, and ultimately trying to get to the Promised Land by our own devices? Or will we step forward (or backward!) in faith that the God who guided Israel through much wandering to the land of glory by the pillar and the cloud is the same God who promises both great hardship in this life and also that he will never leave or forsake his people in their circuitous journey toward heaven, where our real citizenship is.
We must remember that Jesus knew this life in the wilderness, too. God's will for him involved not grasping the equality with God that was clearly and rightfully his, leaving the comforts of heaven to live out a human existence with all its trials and tears on earth. The Spirit threw him into the wilderness (Matt. 4) just as he did Israel, and as he often does us. God had a specifically appointed time for a violent and gruesome death for crimes Jesus didn't commit, and it made absolutely no sense to the disciples around him--he was supposed to be the victorious Messiah and yet he was headed toward the cross, something so anguishing that even Jesus prayed that the cup be removed. And yet in all of this, he perfectly submitted himself to the perfect and mysterious will of the Father, that he might take the penalty for all our distrust and angry questions, that he might grant to us a record of perfect submission, that his (and our) ultimate enemy might be defeated and that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters to inherit the Promised Land and the glory of God.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break with blessings on your head... Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain.
*And just in case you think these words were penned by some old guy oblivious to the anguish of living in the hard, mysterious path of Almighty God, read up on Cowper. That's a perplexing life!
God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
and rides upon the storm...
Have you ever felt like you were on a circuitous path in life? Maybe you've given up much to move somewhere you were convinced God led you to go, and yet after some time earnestly seeking to follow God there, you ended up having to go right back to the place from which you came, or somewhere else you never dreamed or wanted to be, feeling like you had little or nothing to show for your sacrifice and upheaval? Or maybe you've taken the right job, followed the Lord's leading into the right ministry, gotten into the right relationship, or pursued that neighbour with the gospel as you believed the Holy Spirit was clearly pushing you to do, only to have no success, to see doors closed, to feel like a failure? We are often so quick, in these circumstances, to wonder when we misunderstood God's leading, where we fell into sin that we're being disciplined for, or if God really cares for us at all.
Israel understood this. I've always thought of their journey out of Egypt toward the Promised Land as a long, but continuous, path which only ended up as 40 years of wandering because of their sin of unbelief. But in reading Exodus 13-17 this time around, I was struck by those words in Ex. 14:2 where the LORD tells the people to TURN BACK. They were headed out of Egypt in victory as the LORD had commanded, and yet they suddenly find themselves going backwards in the direction of Egypt again, where God places them squarely between the Egyptians and an uncrossable sea. Under such circumstances, it really is not surprising that the Israelites respond by complaining to God that he had only rescued them from Egypt in order to kill them (14:10-12). It may not be the godly, faith-filled response of Moses (14:13-14), but it is often our natural human response. There have been times in our life when everything appears to be going "according to plan" ("whose plan?" is an entirely different question!), but there have been other times when we think God is clearly leading us in one direction, and yet it ends in apparent failure, or in years of wandering in the wilderness (see Ex. 16, 17) when we begin to wonder if we somehow fell off God's track. And it is easy in those times to question God, to question his faithfulness, to question his sovereignty, to question his goodness.
As Alec Motyer
points out, Christians can often simplistically attribute times of failure and suffering either to direct attacks of Satan, as if he's somehow bypassed God, or to our failing to follow God's will for our lives, living outside his purposes. But while Satan does attack (just as Pharaoh was on the attack), and believers do sin (the 40 years in the wilderness was discipline), it is clear here that Israel was led by the clear will of the LORD into wandering, hunger, thirst and battle. They didn't just come to the Red Sea and find Pharaoh behind them because they hadn't moved fast enough, or because Pharaoh overcame God's plan. They didn't head into the wilderness to encounter deadly hunger and thirst because they failed to praise God (see the song of Ex. 15 which is immediately followed by the desert trips in Ex. 16 and 17 where they almost die of thirst). They were led there by the pillar and the cloud--easy to miss because of chapter divisions--and the clear commands of God. And it is God who hardens Pharaoh's heart. The Israelites ended up by the Red Sea and in the wildernesses of Shur and Sin BECAUSE they were right in the centre of God's will and guidance.Can we explain God's ways with Israel? Not much more than we can explain the mysteries of God's ways with us, which are sometimes deeply perplexing. The text of Exodus tells us that this was part of God's pre-ordained journey to the Promised Land and that his purpose involved the defeat of Pharaoh and the ability of the Egyptians (14:4) and the Israelites (14:30,31) to know that he is the LORD. But why he did it this way, we won't fully comprehend in this life. How much less then can we understand many of the directions our pilgimage to the Promised Land takes us, when we do not have the benefit of hindsight. One day we will see the bodies of our enemies on the shore (14:30), but when we are sitting between the rock and the hard place, the enemy in full pursuit, God's ways seem confusing and shrouded in darkness. When we are in the midst of the wilderness that seems to be way off the route to the land of milk and honey, we are often more aware of our thirst than of the fact that it is the LORD who led us there. At the same time as we decry the "prosperity gospel", far too often we live as if following God will bring us success and ease, and are confused when the path is hard and makes no sense to us. Will we respond like Israel, crying out in confusion, grumbling and anger, and ultimately trying to get to the Promised Land by our own devices? Or will we step forward (or backward!) in faith that the God who guided Israel through much wandering to the land of glory by the pillar and the cloud is the same God who promises both great hardship in this life and also that he will never leave or forsake his people in their circuitous journey toward heaven, where our real citizenship is.
We must remember that Jesus knew this life in the wilderness, too. God's will for him involved not grasping the equality with God that was clearly and rightfully his, leaving the comforts of heaven to live out a human existence with all its trials and tears on earth. The Spirit threw him into the wilderness (Matt. 4) just as he did Israel, and as he often does us. God had a specifically appointed time for a violent and gruesome death for crimes Jesus didn't commit, and it made absolutely no sense to the disciples around him--he was supposed to be the victorious Messiah and yet he was headed toward the cross, something so anguishing that even Jesus prayed that the cup be removed. And yet in all of this, he perfectly submitted himself to the perfect and mysterious will of the Father, that he might take the penalty for all our distrust and angry questions, that he might grant to us a record of perfect submission, that his (and our) ultimate enemy might be defeated and that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters to inherit the Promised Land and the glory of God.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break with blessings on your head... Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain.
-William Cowper*
*And just in case you think these words were penned by some old guy oblivious to the anguish of living in the hard, mysterious path of Almighty God, read up on Cowper. That's a perplexing life!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Mom Guilt
If you are a mom, I have a question for you: Did you at any point in the last 24 hours feel some measure of guilt about your mothering ability? If so, you are not alone. Almost every mother I've ever known (including me) seems to struggle, at least at some points, with feeling like she doesn't do enough, or she does too much, or she's somehow messing up her children by her inadequacies and sin. Between the desire to prove to their working peers that stay-at-home moms are doing something worthwhile with their days (or to prove to their "full-time mom" friends that working moms actually care for their kids, too) and the inundation of beautiful, creative, time-consuming ideas flooding Facebook, Pinterest and the blogosphere, I'm pretty convinced that the mothers of our generation spend a lot of time straining under the burden of the guilt of not measuring up. Stephen Altrogge at The Blazing Center wrote a post about this last week, and I think what he has to say is helpful. He boils the biblical responsibility of mothering down to 3 things: love God, love your husband, and love your kids by training them in the ways of the Lord. Cake-decorating, homeschooling and hand-stitching their Christmas outfits are not on the list.
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4)
Be free, Christian mothers! Be free from the guilt of not making enough beautiful birthday cakes for your kids, free from the guilt of not teaching them all their letters before they go off to kindergarten, free from the guilt of never having time or energy (or insanity) for fingerpainting. And as you repent, be free from the guilt of forgetting to go over their memory verses, free from the guilt of spending too much time on the internet instead of praying for them, free from the guilt of disciplining in anger, free from the guilt of every sin that has been paid for at the cross (and for those who are in Christ, that is every single one!). Sin is serious and we must run from it. But God's grace at the cross is serious, too, and we must run to it.
Are you running toward freedom today? Let's run to Christ and be free from our mom guilt!
But my concern is that, for Christian mothers who desire to glorify God and live out their faith, there is a source of guilt beyond how many crafts we do or whether we let our kids watch TV, and it is far more subtle. It is the guilt of not always training our children in the ways of the Lord, of not always loving our husbands, of not always delighting in God. If you are a mother who deeply desires to obey the Word, to see your children following the Lord, and to do all things, as much as possible, in a biblical way, it is very easy to become steeped in guilt when you see all the many places where you don't measure up to the standards of the Bible. This guilt may be worldly--your pride may be hurt because you don't manage to read your 4-year-old a chapter of the Bible each day (or even a verse). You may be anxious about the effects of your sin and neglect on the ability of your kids to be productive members of society, or to answer the questions correctly in Sunday School. You may fear that God will punish you for your failings by turning your children away from him. Or your guilt may be godly--you realize that when you fail as a mother, you sin primarily against a Holy God and are truly saddened by the fact that you have not obeyed the commands of your loving Father and have grieved the Holy Spirit. But either way, the guilt must be dealt with. Here are three things I need to think about when I begin to feel that "mom guilt" creeping in (or exploding with a bang!):
1) Am I feeling guilty for worldly reasons, or godly ones? Moms, if we are sitting under a weight of guilt because of pride or anxiety or fear, then our first need is to recognize that our sin is not mainly about US and our self-esteem, or about our relationship with our kids. The God of heaven is holy, and he has commanded us to be holy as he is holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). Any failure in our parenting shows that we do not measure up to his standard of holiness. Our sin is not first and foremost about being a bad parent; it's about sinning against the perfect God of love. If I realize that I'm just concerned about my reputation or the consequences of my actions, I need to pray for the grace to see my sin for what it is: an offense to the God of Holiness. I need to pray for the Spirit's work to lead me to genuine sorrow for my SIN, and not just for its effects. (see 2 Corinthians 7:8-12)
2) Am I feeling guilty over actual sin, or am I merely failing man's standard of righteousness? Christian moms today can choose from a wealth of books and blogs on how to parent in a godly way. Some of these books appeal directly to biblical truth and wisdom; others are really just man's wisdom cloaked in proof verses; some are a mix of the two. (And some may contain little real "wisdom" at all.) It is easy for the mother who earnestly desires to raise her children in a biblical way to hear wisdom principles from respected writers and speakers (and other mothers) and become convinced that these principles are biblical commands. We moms love to have a nice little checklist of "how to get Amy to sit still in church" or "how to train Johnny to serve others" and especially "how to get any kid to obey". And sometimes such a checklist is very helpful. Human wisdom certainly has an important place in parenting. But while the Bible doesn't answer any of these questions with a 5-step make-or-break program, we are sometimes quick to take a wise Christian's practical advice on the matter and turn it into law. Then, when we break this "law", we feel guilty. We may truly feel that we have sinned against God. So when I feel guilty over a presence or lack of something in my mothering, I may need to search the Scriptures (with prayer) to see if what I believe to be biblical really is biblical, and not just the respectable personal opinion of another human. Sometimes the answer is very clear. If I never speak about God or his ways to my children, I am clearly failing to obey the Bible (Deut. 6:4-8, among many others). Other times, it takes greater discernment. Keeping a regular schedule during the day may be a very wise thing to do, but while the Bible speaks to the goodness of order and regular times of work and rest, if you have a few days where the whole routine goes down the drain, you have not sinned (at least not necessarily--the cause of the disruption may involve sin, but the actual change in routine is neutral territory). So make sure your guilt really pertains to sin. If it's just a matter of someone else's wisdom, that would be the place to relax, and thank God that only he determines what is sin and what is not.
3) Now if my guilt is over real sin, then I must not stay there. It is time to repent, to confess my sin to God to seek, by the work of the Spirit, to turn away from my sin, and to appropriate God's forgiveness. I may also need to confess my sin to my children (and/or husband) and ask for their forgiveness. And here is where "mom guilt" ends. The glorious truth in all this is that the mother who truly repents has no more reason to sit under the burden of guilt. In fact, she MUST NOT! The repentant mother is FREE from her sin, because the Bible promises that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Every mother--and indeed, every Christian--should memorize verses like that (just my wisdom, though!). Yes, there are mothers who are lazy about their parenting, though to be honest, I've met very few (see also this article from the Gospel Coalition.). Yes, sin is real, parental failure is real, and its effects on our children are real. But if we sit under the weight of that sin even after we have repented before God, if we allow ourselves to believe that it's all over and we're lost (or our kids are lost) because we blew it, if we refuse to believe that God can really forgive THAT sin, then we've made God too small in our eyes. God is greater than ALL our sin, and his grace is more than sufficient to cover even the worst sin and failure. Mothers, Jesus bore the awful weight of the cross so that you wouldn't have to bear the guilty weight of your sin. God would actually be unjust to hold our sin against us, because the penalty has already been paid once and for all by Jesus. If you are guilty over your sin today, run to Jesus. If you are broken over the way you've failed your kids, run to Jesus. If you can't see your way out of your parenting mistakes, run to Jesus. We do not have a high priest who stands over us with the law, burdening us with the guilt of our mothering failures, holding our children hostage until we "get it right". We have a high priest "who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15,16)
1) Am I feeling guilty for worldly reasons, or godly ones? Moms, if we are sitting under a weight of guilt because of pride or anxiety or fear, then our first need is to recognize that our sin is not mainly about US and our self-esteem, or about our relationship with our kids. The God of heaven is holy, and he has commanded us to be holy as he is holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). Any failure in our parenting shows that we do not measure up to his standard of holiness. Our sin is not first and foremost about being a bad parent; it's about sinning against the perfect God of love. If I realize that I'm just concerned about my reputation or the consequences of my actions, I need to pray for the grace to see my sin for what it is: an offense to the God of Holiness. I need to pray for the Spirit's work to lead me to genuine sorrow for my SIN, and not just for its effects. (see 2 Corinthians 7:8-12)
2) Am I feeling guilty over actual sin, or am I merely failing man's standard of righteousness? Christian moms today can choose from a wealth of books and blogs on how to parent in a godly way. Some of these books appeal directly to biblical truth and wisdom; others are really just man's wisdom cloaked in proof verses; some are a mix of the two. (And some may contain little real "wisdom" at all.) It is easy for the mother who earnestly desires to raise her children in a biblical way to hear wisdom principles from respected writers and speakers (and other mothers) and become convinced that these principles are biblical commands. We moms love to have a nice little checklist of "how to get Amy to sit still in church" or "how to train Johnny to serve others" and especially "how to get any kid to obey". And sometimes such a checklist is very helpful. Human wisdom certainly has an important place in parenting. But while the Bible doesn't answer any of these questions with a 5-step make-or-break program, we are sometimes quick to take a wise Christian's practical advice on the matter and turn it into law. Then, when we break this "law", we feel guilty. We may truly feel that we have sinned against God. So when I feel guilty over a presence or lack of something in my mothering, I may need to search the Scriptures (with prayer) to see if what I believe to be biblical really is biblical, and not just the respectable personal opinion of another human. Sometimes the answer is very clear. If I never speak about God or his ways to my children, I am clearly failing to obey the Bible (Deut. 6:4-8, among many others). Other times, it takes greater discernment. Keeping a regular schedule during the day may be a very wise thing to do, but while the Bible speaks to the goodness of order and regular times of work and rest, if you have a few days where the whole routine goes down the drain, you have not sinned (at least not necessarily--the cause of the disruption may involve sin, but the actual change in routine is neutral territory). So make sure your guilt really pertains to sin. If it's just a matter of someone else's wisdom, that would be the place to relax, and thank God that only he determines what is sin and what is not.
3) Now if my guilt is over real sin, then I must not stay there. It is time to repent, to confess my sin to God to seek, by the work of the Spirit, to turn away from my sin, and to appropriate God's forgiveness. I may also need to confess my sin to my children (and/or husband) and ask for their forgiveness. And here is where "mom guilt" ends. The glorious truth in all this is that the mother who truly repents has no more reason to sit under the burden of guilt. In fact, she MUST NOT! The repentant mother is FREE from her sin, because the Bible promises that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Every mother--and indeed, every Christian--should memorize verses like that (just my wisdom, though!). Yes, there are mothers who are lazy about their parenting, though to be honest, I've met very few (see also this article from the Gospel Coalition.). Yes, sin is real, parental failure is real, and its effects on our children are real. But if we sit under the weight of that sin even after we have repented before God, if we allow ourselves to believe that it's all over and we're lost (or our kids are lost) because we blew it, if we refuse to believe that God can really forgive THAT sin, then we've made God too small in our eyes. God is greater than ALL our sin, and his grace is more than sufficient to cover even the worst sin and failure. Mothers, Jesus bore the awful weight of the cross so that you wouldn't have to bear the guilty weight of your sin. God would actually be unjust to hold our sin against us, because the penalty has already been paid once and for all by Jesus. If you are guilty over your sin today, run to Jesus. If you are broken over the way you've failed your kids, run to Jesus. If you can't see your way out of your parenting mistakes, run to Jesus. We do not have a high priest who stands over us with the law, burdening us with the guilt of our mothering failures, holding our children hostage until we "get it right". We have a high priest "who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15,16)
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4)
Be free, Christian mothers! Be free from the guilt of not making enough beautiful birthday cakes for your kids, free from the guilt of not teaching them all their letters before they go off to kindergarten, free from the guilt of never having time or energy (or insanity) for fingerpainting. And as you repent, be free from the guilt of forgetting to go over their memory verses, free from the guilt of spending too much time on the internet instead of praying for them, free from the guilt of disciplining in anger, free from the guilt of every sin that has been paid for at the cross (and for those who are in Christ, that is every single one!). Sin is serious and we must run from it. But God's grace at the cross is serious, too, and we must run to it.
Are you running toward freedom today? Let's run to Christ and be free from our mom guilt!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Lessons From the Laundry Recap
Just for future convenience, here are this week's posts all rolled into one:
This is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on, my friends... Okay, now that I've got that earworm stuck in your head (you can thank me later!), I'm pretty sure that song was really about housework! Unlike many other things I do, housework is the job never done, the job that never even creates true progress. Kids grow up and mature, and the issues and trials you deal with as parents evolve and change. Even though, in the short term, it can feel like you're making no headway, over time the kids turn into adults and your job is largely done. Learning a new skill like cake decorating or playing the piano takes time and effort, but if you work at it, eventually the learning phase is mostly behind you and you have a mastered skill to show for it. But dishes, vacuuming, laundry, ironing, mopping? These are repetitive tasks you do over and over again until you're too old and frail to do them, and even then, they still need to be done by someone. And it's not even as if you make a bed once, and then that one sits there as a monument to your achievement while you go one making other beds. You make that bed only to have it unmade so you can make it again tomorrow. You wash the dishes only to have the very same plate grabbed off the dish rack and covered in food again. You do a load of laundry and before it's even lost its fresh-from-the-dryer warmth, someone has pulled out an outfit and gone and played in the mud.
Now, to be fair, housework does change slightly over time. The day will come when doing the dishes no longer involves trying to get the germ-infested gunk out of the narrow crevices of a sippy cup. And dealing with spit-up stains eventually gives way to dealing with grass stains. But that doesn't offer much hope when you've still got dishes and stains.
I think this is why I find household tasks to be one of the most draining parts of managing the household, more so than parenting, if that's possible :) It's like rolling a heavy rock up a hill, only to have it come rolling back down so you can push it back up again. There's something about working hard at something, all the while knowing that it's all about to be undone, that can easily suck the joy right out of you.
So where is the hope in my housework? When I'm tempted to complain, lash out and/or despair about all the work that keeps getting undone, here are 4 thoughts that help put the joy back into cleaning.
"Wait!" you say. "I thought you were going to help me find JOY in my housework! Now I'm just depressed." But hold on, because I'm getting there. We need to recognize the futility of our life and works, so we don't put our hope in them and make them our idols. If, every time you iron that same shirt AGAIN, you remind yourself that in and of ourselves, all earthly things and works are exactly like that--FUTILE!, it will help keep you from idolatry and push you to find your hope elsewhere. And then what?
Maybe it doesn't make ironing any more fun (I'm not sure that even adding a circus could do that!), but if I can use my futile, soon-to-be-redone housework to remind me of these hope-giving, joy-inspiring truths, that pile of ironing and that sink full of dishes will push me on to a lasting delight in God, what He's done for me in Christ, what He is doing with me in this life to bless my family and others around me, and what He will establish through me for His eternal glory. And that's of such lasting value that it's worth doing that laundry one more time just to grasp it!
This is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on, my friends... Okay, now that I've got that earworm stuck in your head (you can thank me later!), I'm pretty sure that song was really about housework! Unlike many other things I do, housework is the job never done, the job that never even creates true progress. Kids grow up and mature, and the issues and trials you deal with as parents evolve and change. Even though, in the short term, it can feel like you're making no headway, over time the kids turn into adults and your job is largely done. Learning a new skill like cake decorating or playing the piano takes time and effort, but if you work at it, eventually the learning phase is mostly behind you and you have a mastered skill to show for it. But dishes, vacuuming, laundry, ironing, mopping? These are repetitive tasks you do over and over again until you're too old and frail to do them, and even then, they still need to be done by someone. And it's not even as if you make a bed once, and then that one sits there as a monument to your achievement while you go one making other beds. You make that bed only to have it unmade so you can make it again tomorrow. You wash the dishes only to have the very same plate grabbed off the dish rack and covered in food again. You do a load of laundry and before it's even lost its fresh-from-the-dryer warmth, someone has pulled out an outfit and gone and played in the mud.
Now, to be fair, housework does change slightly over time. The day will come when doing the dishes no longer involves trying to get the germ-infested gunk out of the narrow crevices of a sippy cup. And dealing with spit-up stains eventually gives way to dealing with grass stains. But that doesn't offer much hope when you've still got dishes and stains.
I think this is why I find household tasks to be one of the most draining parts of managing the household, more so than parenting, if that's possible :) It's like rolling a heavy rock up a hill, only to have it come rolling back down so you can push it back up again. There's something about working hard at something, all the while knowing that it's all about to be undone, that can easily suck the joy right out of you.
So where is the hope in my housework? When I'm tempted to complain, lash out and/or despair about all the work that keeps getting undone, here are 4 thoughts that help put the joy back into cleaning.
Undone:
Housework reminds me of the futility of the things of this life. "Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun." (Eccl. 2:11) That's housework! Yet the Preacher is talking here about things that actually appear to be great achievements (see verses 4-9)! Just like the sweeping that is done only to be done again (parents of toddlers all nod), all of the achievements of man--even the great and noble strides in history--will one day come to an end. Do you know what your great-great-grandparents did on a daily basis? Do you even know their names? In a few generations, it may well be that no one remembers mine either, and even if they do, they probably won't know much at all about me. There is no hope to be had in the things of this life. They are passing away. WE are passing away, just like the grass of the fields: here one day and gone the next. Life is a vapour."Wait!" you say. "I thought you were going to help me find JOY in my housework! Now I'm just depressed." But hold on, because I'm getting there. We need to recognize the futility of our life and works, so we don't put our hope in them and make them our idols. If, every time you iron that same shirt AGAIN, you remind yourself that in and of ourselves, all earthly things and works are exactly like that--FUTILE!, it will help keep you from idolatry and push you to find your hope elsewhere. And then what?
Fully Done:
Housework reminds me to rejoice in the finished, completed, never-to-be-undone work of Christ in his perfect life, death and resurrection. The things of this life are futile, and without Christ my works are vain and worse than worthless-damning, even! Nothing I do in this life, whether it's keeping a clean house, or freeing a people Joan-of-Arc style, is enough to earn me God's approval, and without Christ, all my works will be burned up for eternity in the unquenchable fire of God's wrath... Gone and worse than gone. But Christ's daily works and life were so perfect, so sinless, that they were worthy of being on permanent display forever. He lived the only life worth preserving, and he lived it, not only so that he'd be able to take the punishment for my unworthy, futile life and keep me from the fires of hell, emptying the sink of dirty dishes, as it were--though that inspires much praise! He lived that perfect, finished, established life and then gives it to ME as my own record. When God looks at me, He doesn't see all those unfinished dirty dishes in the sink and moan about how He's going to have to wash them up AGAIN. He doesn't even just see an empty sink. When God looks at me, He sees a cupboard full of sparkling white washed-dried-and-neatly-stacked dishware gleaming from every shelf! Oh, if I can only think of this when I see the dirty dishes in my own sink, and instead of complaining, praise the glorious Lamb who gives me his righteousness!Unseen:
Housework reminds me that even very temporary things can have yet-unseen permanent results. Why do I go on doing the housework, even though it seems so futile? Can you imagine what life would be like for my family if I just decided to quit--no more laundry, no more dishes, never iron another shirt again, and please don't clean that toilet! Sounds heavenly! Except that it would be a disaster. My children would have to wander around in filthy clothes, eating scraps from the garbage on fly-infested plates, while my husband and I tripped our way through the mass of toys, praying we didn't get one of those evil spear-headed Legos underfoot. Keeping the house tidy and well-organized serves my family in numerous ways that are admittedly often unnoticed and taken for granted, but who would want to live in a world without them? In the same way, many of the little things that we do in life, even those that go unnoticed and seem to us to have no visible results, can have a great impact on the lives of others around us, and much of this impact may be of more eternal value than we know. How we serve in the church when nobody sees us, prayers offered on behalf of those we'll never meet on this earth, our tone of voice when we see our 2-year-old dump the box of blocks all over the newly-vacuumed playroom floor... these things have impacts that we're often not aware of. Faithful service is not usually glamourous. Sometimes it involves scrubbing toilets and picking up trash--literally or figuratively. But the unseen effect it has on those around us (and on our own hearts) is well-worth the effort. "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)Fully Seen:
Housework reminds me to hope in the future establishment of all things, my work included, in the new heavens and new earth. When I'm picking up a pile of blocks for the 15th time in a day, my soul cries out with the psalmist, "Establish the works of my hands!" (Psalm 90:17) I may not see it now, and I may not see it in 30 years, but the day is coming when that which is unseen will be revealed, and we will all see the permanent results of our labour. Though there will be things done for self that will be burned up, the work that we've done in the name of Christ and to his glory--even work we thought was of little lasting value, like washing the windows--is being built into the permanent temple of God, as an established display of His glory worked through simple, unworthy servants. And when He does away with death and establishes His dwelling with us for all eternity in a new earth, He will glorify Himself by giving us permanent, never-to-be-seen-as-futile-again joyful work in His kingdom. Yes, we are only given one life to life, and it will soon be past, but what is done for Christ WILL last--be it serving the poor or mopping the kitchen floor! "Therefore, my beloved brothers (and sisters), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain!" (1 Corinthians 15:58)Maybe it doesn't make ironing any more fun (I'm not sure that even adding a circus could do that!), but if I can use my futile, soon-to-be-redone housework to remind me of these hope-giving, joy-inspiring truths, that pile of ironing and that sink full of dishes will push me on to a lasting delight in God, what He's done for me in Christ, what He is doing with me in this life to bless my family and others around me, and what He will establish through me for His eternal glory. And that's of such lasting value that it's worth doing that laundry one more time just to grasp it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)