Sometimes we need to avoid that which is out of our grasp, but sometimes …
Ever gone into a store, a shop, a boutique that you can barely afford to browse the goods that are displayed?
Ever surfed the vacation websites for exotic destinations and lavish holidays?
Ever searched for real estate, and intentionally checked out properties that you couldn’t afford the maintenance costs, let alone the mortgage?
Doing such things can be a recipe for emotional disaster …
Sometimes, though, to see what is out of our reach might be the necessary nudge to change or improve our current circumstances.
Such can be the case when reading the Bible about what is required or expected of how we live our lives, as followers of Christ.
“… and what does the Lord require of you? to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
(that is not easy)
“But you are to be perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48
(perfect? yikes!)
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
(wow! I’m sure I am not that selfless)
These are just three examples of the standard for those of us who claim the name of Christian. The bar is high! Impossibly high! Yet it’s height is not to discourage us, but to prod us along, to encourage us to aim high.
We serve a risen Savior. In His rising he raised that bar for us. Not to discourage us, but to move us beyond our present circumstances, to something better.
January is (finally) at it’s end. A dark month, both physically and emotionally.
There has been one thing that I have been reminded during of this month of ebony … we aren’t there yet.
There being the life that waits for us once our life here on Earth has come to an end. There being that place where the streets are paved with gold (Rev. 21:21), where there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying in pain … no more tears (Rev. 21:4), where there will be no more night (Rev. 21:25), where we will dwell with God (Rev. 21:3).
There being the existence that we were originally created for, back in the garden.
I am no detester of this Earth, or this life we live. This IS my Father’s World …
and He created all that is good in it. But the world He created changed in it’s totality when sin came into His perfect, flawless, self-sustaining creation, and the effects of that sin are all that weighs us down in this life … sickness, floods, starvation, money, lies, hurts, death.
In the absence of the perfection that God intended for us to live, is the longing for … more. That more can only be found there.
“There’s a day that’s drawing near When this darkness breaks to light And the shadows disappear And my faith shall be my eyes”
Chris Tomlin “I Will Rise”
As we trod this earth as believers in the Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) we wish that we had such great faith that it is our eyes. We wish that we could see those around us with the faith of full belief, but we cannot. It is only in the presence of our Creator that our faith specs are able to see fully.
Walking on my favorite trail with my beast, I came to this realization.
A few weeks back I took the photo above and to the left. It was a chilly, bright, clear day. If you look really closely you can see the snow covered mountain in the far background. It was a beautiful view!
Then, this past weekend I took the photo above and to the right. It was a cool, damp, cloudy, rainy day. The walk was equally beneficial, but not so beautiful. There is no mountain in sight, as it was hidden from my view by those rain-filled clouds.
You now know, because I shared my pictures, that behind those gray clouds are beautiful mountains. If I had just told you about them, you might have trusted my telling, and, with faith, believed that the mountains I shared with you are truly there, and beautiful. But, because you are able to see them for yourself (albeit with a magnifying glass), your faith has been made sight!
“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
1 Corinthians 13:12
And that is what awaits us. Faith that has been made sight!
“For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what’s ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we’ll never settle for less. That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming. But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing (OR, in the NIV: “for we live by faith, not by sight”). Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions.” 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 (MSG)
Sometimes we need to avoid that which is out of our grasp, but sometimes …
January is (finally) at it’s end. A dark month, both physically and emotionally.
itsawonderfilledlife 