Uphill Stride

I need to walk close to You to tide through this challenging time.

The challenge of learning to bear each other's burdens.
The challenge of not just loving but caring.
The challenge of not putting myself first.
The challenge of faith in letting go of something good to expect something better.
The challenge of doing things alone.
The challenge of saying goodbye.
The challenge of patriotism from an unregistered voter.

Such a difficult time. But it's exciting. Because it means I can lean on nothing, nothing else but You.

And it means I taste how much of 'everything' You are to me.

And with them He dined

I wonder how Jesus must have felt living and dining with sinners.

The tax collectors who made the poor poorer. The prostitutes (and men who made use of them) who viewed sex as something that could be bought and sold. The Pharisees who looked down on everyone else. The normal people like us, who looked average on the surface but with hearts that burned with hatred, deceit, discontent, lawlessness, disregard for parents, disregard for God.

How He felt when He cried that He longed to gather Jerusalem under His wings, but they would not let Him.

For He came to love them and die for their sins. And to look at them live in their sins, refusing to turn away. To know that some of them are so deeply loved, yet chose to reject that love. To see them love instead that sin that He paid the price for with His own blood.

It must be way way more than the hurt I felt today. The hurt of seeing and knowing how much people need you yet glory in their sin. The hurt of loving them, and loving Your laws, and yet not judging them. The hurt of not being able to do anything to help. To see the lost who know not they are lost.

When the hands are itching for action, the mouth knows not what to say. And the heart calls out: you know what to do. Trust. And pray. Love. And pray.

Pray because that's the only thing I can do. Pray because that's the best thing I can do. To pray means to trust in faith. And doesn't the Bible say that the just will live by that daily manna called faith?

Dear God I trust that you love them more than I do, and I know You are mightier than I could ever ever imagine. I trust in Your love and goodness. Thank you for You.

Do Not Be Moved...

... by lesser lights and fleeting shadows.

Maybe life is realistic. But as realistic as life is, God is a truer, surer, reality.

As I struggled in my heart to let go, I had my answer as I remembered that Jesus let go of heaven to drink that cup of suffering for me, for us.

He let go when He had everything to lose but nothing to gain. But when I let go in faith, I am assured that I have nothing to lose but everything to gain. He let go to love those who cannot pay Him back. I let go as a response of having received that love.

Oh Lord can I pray the prayer of Elisha for his servant. Open my eyes to see Your chariots of fire.

It is not a sacrifice. Just a response.

Set apart

For I believe that Christians should not only be set apart in terms of holiness, but also in our source of joy and hope and love.

For I can preach no real joy apart from Christ. No real hope apart from Christ. But in Christ there is joy everlasting. In Christ there is hope everlasting. And no love worth having apart then ones being made eternal in Christ.

That's why sometimes I find it hard to motivate people in suffering and in need to carry on. Because the only concrete, practical reason I see to make a difference to yourself and to the world is Christ. Anything other fleeting reason is like catching the wind. Futile work that is a vapor blown away tomorrow. Futile happiness that is but an illusion. Futile hope that is extinguished with the lamp of life.

Why rejoice, why laugh, why love if everything is put to end by death and the grave. Why exist. Why work to save lives when life will end one day. Why walk in a universe that is now here but one day fold away.

If nothing was eternal, none of this will make sense and it doesn't make a difference does it, a person who changes the world with a cell that cannot be fertilized.

As Apostle Paul rightly puts it, if Christ were false, we would be the most pitiful people on earth. Because people at least have hope in the things of this life. But our hope is in Jesus, therefore we forsake the things of this life.

And yet it is because of Jesus, of His promise of forgiveness eternal, love eternal, hope eternal and life eternal; does anything in this world be worth anything at all. In fact it is worth everything because of Him.

What joy what hope what meaning the message of grace and salvation brings. Oh, come taste and see of this goodness!