Our Father is Younger than We

A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life.

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged.

They always say, “Do it again“; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead.

For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough…

It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon.

 It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old,
and our Father is younger than we.

- G.K. Chesterton

Reminders of our Dependence

This week, while fighting a terrible virus, I wrestled with the meaning of it all.  One night I wrote in my journal:

I don’t understand why we have to be sick. I suppose it’s one more thing we can chalk up to the Fall. Thanks Adam…thanks a lot! 

Sometimes I wonder if sickness isn’t much unlike a forest fire. A forest becomes overrun and rundown with dead trees and undergrowth.  In many ways, flourishing, but at the same time, choking itself out.

The fire comes through to start things over. The soil is enriched, the air is cleared, and new life begins. In fact, without the fiery conflagration, many of the plants and trees would be unable to reproduce. Pine cones and nuts litter the forest floor…rotting…until heat and pressure cause them to bear their life-giving seeds. And the cycle begins again.

And within our fleshly shells, a never-ending game of balance plays on day by day. When sickness assaults us, our system goes into survival mode. Our symptoms are simply our own body’s response to perceived imbalance. And when the war is done being waged, we stand stronger for the next battle. Once again, heat and pressure bring new life.

Perhaps of even more signficance is the fact that if there was no fire, no earthquake, no disaster: Creation would be without its groaning (Romans 8:20-22); even forgetting its fallen nature.

And so man, in the frailty of sickness is reminded of his death. Of his mortality. And therefore, his utter need for God.

What has independence gotten us? Sickness. Sorrow. Pain. Evil. And ultimately…DEATH.

Not that our loving Father causes us sickness to teach us a lesson. No, that is a result of the Fall. Yet, our Father, in His perfect wisdom and sovereignty, birthes good and truth out of every situation.

So the next time you awaken with a sore throat and stuffy nose, remember your mortality. Remember your humanity. Remember your absolute dependence on the Giver of all Life. May your own weakness drive you into the arms of the only One strong enough to sustain you. May you find rest and healing in his perfect Love.

Life as a Lamb

You know, there’s a reason why we are repeatedly referred to as sheep in the Bible…  Sometimes we just have to realize that we, as the little, feeble lambs that we are, don’t have the perspective that our Shepherd has.  We go around on our stubby little legs watching for wolves…trying to make it on our own…always looking for greener pastures… We can only see what’s right in front of us—that obstacle, that problem, that dilemma.  Nothing else matters…. It’s all about us… Until we’re broken… Yes, broken.  

 When a little lamb would wander off from the flock, the shepherd would take his staff, or crook, and break one of the legs of the little fellow.  This wasn’t out of anger, or sadistic humor, but purely out of love.  You see, if that little lamb didn’t learn his lesson then that wandering from the flock would only bring pain, he would learn it later at the jaws of some wild predator.

It is when we’re broken—a leg gets twisted, a hoof is split, or a painful lesson is learned—that the Good Shepherd picks us up and puts us on his shoulders.  He carries us when we can’t carry ourselves… And then we see everything differently.  Suddenly, we’re seeing from his perspective; the pastures on the other side, the other lambs frolicking, the revitalizing water flowing.  There’s no way we could see this larger picture on our own, in our stunted, pea-brained worldview.  Only on the shoulders of our Shepherd does everything come into focus.

Don’t be afraid of being broken.  Stop trying to make sense of this bleak world in your own human understanding.  God sees the whole picture.  Start trusting in him and seeing yourself, your problems, and your world through His eyes.  Only then will you begin to understand…

Know that he is in control and his ways are best.  I’ll leave you with this well known verse:  “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’“  Most people stop here, but the following verses are perhaps the most important… and my challenge to you today…

“12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:11-13, NIV)

The Core of the Revolution

Jesus has been, and always will be, a threat to the established order of things. If we understand his birth as a revolution, then we may glimpse the revolution that his life will bring.

 Instead of being born into a well established and powerful family, Jesus was born to a couple of teenagers who couldn’t even stay with their family in Bethlehem, most likely because of the scandal of her pregnancy before their official marriage. Not only did Jesus’ birth turn everything upside down; so did his life and what he taught. You must die to live. You must lose to gain. Weakness is strength. Joy exists in the midst of suffering. Power is restraint. Love those who persecute you. Pray for those who hate you. It is not the strong or the wealthy who will inherit the earth, but the meek. The kingdom of God won’t be given to the religious leaders, but to the spiritual idiots (the poor in spirit). Mourners, peacemakers, the merciful, and the persecuted can all find blessing in the kingdom of Jesus.

This is how love invaded our planet. This is how the revolution began. It’s unlikely, even absurd. But the last thing it should be is boring or predictable or explainable. This should incite passionate joy or passionate distain. This is either the greatest thing to ever happen or the most ridiculous idea ever suggested. That God should come among us as one of the “least of these.” 

 

This is revolution.

If you follow Jesus, you follow the most radical man who ever existed. He marches into the world with kindness, peace, and love, and offers people a whole new way of looking at the world and living within it. His is the most radical message you can preach or live. He turns everything upside down and calls us to do likewise. Jesus is not vitally committed to our comfort and safety; he is committed to the advancing of his kingdom revolution in the hearts of people everywhere.

In talking about what his kingdom is like, Jesus announced, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing. And forceful men take hold of it.” In other words, God is doing something so powerful and dangerous that only those who are willing to embrace it with forceful intensity may take hold of the movement of God’s kingdom. The revolution of Jesus isn’t for the faint of heart or the middle-of-the-road. It isn’t safe. It isn’t comfortable. It costs us a great deal to say yes. We take hold of the revolution by abandoning ourselves to Jesus and letting go of everything else.

Will we choose to follow a safe Jesus of suburbia – who exists to provide us with health, wealth, comfort, and happiness? Or will we press on to find the Jesus of Nazareth, the most dangerous and radical man to ever walk the face of the earth? We want the real thing. We don’t want to worship the counterfeits and settle for less than the revolution Jesus brings. We are moving beyond the unbiblical idea that the primary work of Jesus is giving us a ticket to heaven, and now understand that he is asking us for everything, to stand with him against all that is unloving and untrue in our world. 

Together, we are pursuing this Re(love)ution of Jesus.

 

 

This piece of prose was written by the folks over at the dynamic, innovative church in Southern CA called RockHarbor