Lament and Hope
Lament and hope seem opposite but actually fit together. To lament, to say I am disappointed how things are, comes from my hope they will be better. To conclude that life is a mess and never getting better is not the spirit of lament, but of cynical despair. I wouldn’t lament if everything had gone wrong and I had no hope, I’d seek comfort in distraction.
Apathy
Some days the desire to not care is strong. The principles of faith seem old and tedious. Yes, I know all that, nothing new there.
Now and then I wonder. I've learned that God has given us this life as something like a training exercise, to learn that in the stresses and shocks of things we cannot control, we can learn he is with us. And in the future, we shall see him face to face and know like we are known.
This life is short and temporary when viewed from an eternal perspective. But in the here and now perspective (the one I consistently experience) it seems long and dull. I attempted to pray yesterday, with a little success. What difference, I wonder, does one day's success or failure at prayer, at walking with God make? If it is the height of faith to continue in the belief that God is with me even when I don't feel it, is it possible for me to assert that I am with God even when I don't feel it? God's word is true whether I feel it or not. And God's word for me is I was chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight.
I can't think of a Psalm that echoes this emotion. Psalm 43:5 says "Why, my soul, are you so downcast?", but I'm not aware of one that says "Why, my soul, do you care so little?'
Now and then I wonder. I've learned that God has given us this life as something like a training exercise, to learn that in the stresses and shocks of things we cannot control, we can learn he is with us. And in the future, we shall see him face to face and know like we are known.
This life is short and temporary when viewed from an eternal perspective. But in the here and now perspective (the one I consistently experience) it seems long and dull. I attempted to pray yesterday, with a little success. What difference, I wonder, does one day's success or failure at prayer, at walking with God make? If it is the height of faith to continue in the belief that God is with me even when I don't feel it, is it possible for me to assert that I am with God even when I don't feel it? God's word is true whether I feel it or not. And God's word for me is I was chosen to be holy and blameless in his sight.
I can't think of a Psalm that echoes this emotion. Psalm 43:5 says "Why, my soul, are you so downcast?", but I'm not aware of one that says "Why, my soul, do you care so little?'
Another new Psalm
Oh God, you see my troubles. How small they are.
How small they are when I think of my brother, my sister held captive.
Yet those troubles too are small compared to You.
How easy for you Lord, to say one word and set the captive free.
Somehow the time for that word is not yet.
This moment, you choose to show your power
By secretly sustaining their soul in outward weakness.
So many things I’d like.
Yet how little really is missing from my life, when I have you.
Only for a short time your great overflowing abundance is hidden.
Open my eyes, my heart to know it’s really there.
What do I really want? You. Help me see that.
Help me take your words to heart.
How small they are when I think of my brother, my sister held captive.
Yet those troubles too are small compared to You.
How easy for you Lord, to say one word and set the captive free.
Somehow the time for that word is not yet.
This moment, you choose to show your power
By secretly sustaining their soul in outward weakness.
So many things I’d like.
Yet how little really is missing from my life, when I have you.
Only for a short time your great overflowing abundance is hidden.
Open my eyes, my heart to know it’s really there.
What do I really want? You. Help me see that.
Help me take your words to heart.
Hope
A short story
Evan closed his now empty desk drawers and stood up. Like the drawers, the desktop and the walls were bare. The computer would be wiped clean and show someone else’s desktop before this day would end. All he had were the two cardboard boxes of books and personal decorations on a dolly. Now push to the elevator, descend, load boxes in the car and drive home. Behind him this office would show no trace he’d been here.
He sighed. He’d come here thinking he could make a difference, make this division a better workplace. But the old ways were surprisingly strong. Work, work, work, don’t show you have a life outside the job, it’d be seen as weakness. People had written him off, then he’d gotten a few people to begin to listen, started having meetings people enjoyed rather than dreaded. THen the CEO and board chair must have decided he was a threat and ought to go. Change exactly as they wanted it, no more. Of course they said nothing at all like that had happened, they were restructuring because of the changing global marketplace, and promised him good recommendations. He didn’t believe them.
What was the point of big dreams that led nowhere?
“Lord,” he prayed. “Help me remember what I sensed yesterday,” he said, remembering his prayers last night. “I should look to you for affirmation, not to my bosses.” He wanted to say it was one thing to labor on without much encouragement, another thing to be laid off, but he really knew God was faithful in either. Being laid off felt a lot harder though.
But in heaven it would feel different. “Thanks for trying,” Jesus might say. “You knew things could be better and you tried to make it happen.” Of course, he hadn’t always gotten it right. But Jesus was the only one who had always gotten it right. Of course he’d approve of an honest effort, coupled with a willingness to admit shortcomings. So he could walk out of here with his head high. Not just the “don’t give them the satisfaction of showing they got to you,” spirit, but in a “I did well. I didn’t get the result I hoped for but I tried.” In heaven, all those tries would be remembered. How many others had tried and failed to make a difference where they were? In heaven, they would see the results they had hoped for. So keep trusting, don’t lose hope.
Social Justice: The dividing line
Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago exposes great injustices and evils, the millions who were arrested, starved, beaten and imprisoned by the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn knew this injustice at first hand. But in prison he became a believer in God, and he longed for God’s justice. He wrote how in prison he learned to reflect, and as he saw the evil of his jailers asked himself “were we really any better?” And he wrote how the dividing line between good and evil goes right through every human heart, that you cannot divide up mankind into good people and evil people, then suppress the evil ones. To do so can make the “good” ones in charge into evil.
Wine and Communion
Good quote from Gisela Kreglinger
The drinking of wine in the Lord’s Supper draws us into the world of sacrifice. It is here that the spiritual meaning of wine takes on multiple facets that offer rich reflections for Christian life and practice. Just as grapes must be gathered, crushed, and turned into fine wine through the miracle of fermentation, so must human life come under the loving judgment of God.Book preview
The law, the Word, grace and truth
Psalm 119, longest chapter in the Bible. The writer is so convinced the law is a great thing. This startles us, because we're convinced Jesus is so much greater than the Law. As John says, the law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
But Psalm 119 does say God is greater than the law. "Your word, Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations." Just as John proclaims the Word as eternal, from the beginning with God, the Word with God, who is God.
Psalm 89 reminds us of something else firm in the heavens. God's covenant with David, to establish his line, his throne forever. Praise to the Son of David, who has ruled, who will rule forever.
But Psalm 119 does say God is greater than the law. "Your word, Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations." Just as John proclaims the Word as eternal, from the beginning with God, the Word with God, who is God.
Psalm 89 reminds us of something else firm in the heavens. God's covenant with David, to establish his line, his throne forever. Praise to the Son of David, who has ruled, who will rule forever.
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