itsawonderfilledlife

Week 3
Faith

Time …

such a valuable resource!

We think that time only exists here, in this life. We think that purpose only lives here. We think that all there is is here and now. We think that today and all of our hopes for today is all that matters. We want our prayers to be answered, people to be healed, families to be happy, troubles to be no more … and we want them now and how we might dream them to be fulfilled.

But, we are myopic … blind as a bat to the bigger story.

Only God himself has a view on the rest of the story (I can hear Paul Harvey’s voice as I write that). Only He knows how the pieces of our lives fit together … with each other. Only He can make beauty from the ashes of our lives.

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
Philippians 4:4

But God asks to live this life, never without Him. And a life with him means a life with joy … that unmistakable joy that has nothing to do with our current circumstances. It is a joy that comes from belief, the faith in Him. When Paul wrote the above words about rejoicing, he was instructing other believers how to live … and his joy-filled message came from prison. This man was in chains. He did not know what any tomorrow had in store for him.

The beautiful hymn It is Well with My Soul, was written our of loss, tragedy and brokenness as Horatio Spafford stood on the deck of a ship sailing to meet up with his wife in England … in the very spot where his four daughters drowned.

though Satan should buffet
though trials should come
let this blest assurance control
that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
and hath shed his own blood for my soul
it is well
with my soul

His words show us he understood joy in the midst of unspeakable loss. He does not communicate Pollyanna, sugar-coated joy, but an understanding that in his trials, his utter helplessness, Christ had ensured that the state of his soul was solid, secure. Because of this he could still have hope.

“Someday we won’t need to hope. Someday we don’t need courage. Time itself will be wrapped up with a bow, and God will draw us all into the eternal moment where there will be no suffering, no disease, no email.”

Kate Bowler

Advent is all about joy, but it is also all about waiting for someday.

Someday when the pieces of the puzzle come together.
Someday when the misery of the heartache, the loneliness, the torture ends.
Someday when fear is extinguished.
Someday when … Jesus returns

In the meantime … rejoice always!