Partially Seen, Fully True

"For now we see through a glass, darkly"-1 Corinthians 13:12

We do not know the future.  Regardless to what the tabloids and 1-800-pyschic commercials may tell you our ability to fully discern the future is pretty much impossible.  In the 13th chapter of Corinthians Paul is imploring his readers to live lives defined by sacrificial love.  And the motivation and encouragement for such love is the picture of the eternal hope we have from the receiving of the greatest sacrificial love that was freely given on the cross. 

But Paul uses this phrase to illustrate the reality; We can barely make out what that future looks like from our current vantage point.  Yet our hope in what we can see can be rooted in its being fully true.  While the absolute clarity of tomorrow's promise is dimly seen, the markers we pass along the way in the present point us towards the future moment when it will not be seen darkly, but in glorious light.

If we are indeed imprinted with the DNA of eternity as image bearers of God, then we will have an innate sense of seeing eternity through the dimly lit glass of our present.  And it would stand to reason that the experiences of our lives would leave markers and evidences of this eternal design.

Over the past few weeks we have been studying the book of Ruth at church and it concludes with a genealogy.  While genealogies are typically boring affairs and most of us fly right past them when we come across them in the Bible I think they serve two important purposes...

1- They place the narrative of Scripture in history.  The names mentioned are not just mythology, but traceable individuals and families that point to the reliability and historicity of Scripture.  While they are not always written to be an "exact" account of a family tree, they do not make up people to fill in the gaps. 

2-  Genealogies serve to illustrate the on going story and purpose of human life that extends beyond our finite personal mortal coil.  Dogs do not care who their great grand dog is, nor, do they care who their great grandchild dog is.  Nor do other animals.  Yet humans are intimately aware and find value in such family connections.  For good and bad we see and intrinsically desire an observable place on the timeline of eternity.

If we are indeed made in the image of an eternal God than this is logical.  And, it would be logical for Scripture as a reliable testimony to the character, person and nature of God, to contain elements that point towards these truths. 

If we are nothing more than a pile of accidental DNA than death, lineage, family, etc, would have little influence on our state of emotions.  The only value we would place on life, and ours specifically, would be for personal enjoyment and the impetus to procreate our DNA in some form.  And when those two standards(enjoyment and DNA passage) become limited, or, eliminated, it would be reasonable to no longer value such a life. 

But even at our societal worse we cannot fully embrace such folly. 

As much as we try to deny it we are powerfully affected by things that happen to people out of our sphere of relationship.  Genocide is heartbreaking.  Murder is shocking.  Death is feared.  But in a society that is hell bent to disassociate ourselves from the eternal nature of life we try to philosophically justify evaluating the value of life by subjective standards that diminish the beauty of life as a whole.

I recently wrote about two significant indicators of this cultural "evolution".  Society is trying to have its cake and eat it to.  We intrinsically sense a need to value life objectively, yet we try to justify valuing it subjectively when it suits some limited moment.  This is the fertile soil of a culture of death. 

Either ALL LIFE is of significant value that is not possible to be measured by some sort of "standard"

or

NO LIFE is intrinsically valuable and worthy of protection.  It is only subjectively so as long as the math lines up.....


We cannot know what the future holds because we see through a dimly lit glass.  There is no fool proof formula that proves that it all "works out".  But our internal selves, as affirmed in Scripture, point us towards the truth that life has a value that is impossible to measure.

When Ruth and Boaz got married they didn't do so because they were promised some great future if they would just do something difficult.  They did what was right and what honored God and life.  Through a dimly lit glass they chose life and a future knowing only that moving forward with God was the only way to see what would one day be on the other side.  They never saw what came of their marriage(King David and Jesus), and oftentimes neither will we.

But God does.

Just because you can't see the future, doesn't mean it doesn't exist

There is Always Another Hill to Climb

The most exhausting part of life is that it keeps going.  What you did yesterday, you have to do today.  Every hill you have conquered will have to be conquered again.

Sadly, we often fail to rise to the occasion.

In today's modern western culture we have this exaggerated sense of self-worth that demands we are "owed" something.  We want to rest on yesterday's success and use that as a barometer for the entirety of existence.  There is even a very interesting and insightful article here that explains these delusions more eloquently.    Yesterday was hard, I don't want to have to do that again today....or...tomorrow. 

This plays out in a variety of situations and relationships.  We work hard once, and try to ride that single success into the sunset.  And while a singularly great moment can carry you for a while, it only goes so far.  When I was in financial sales I would have months where I made gobs of money(relatively) but if I stopped working, within 4 months I would be broke again.

A correlating effect of this attitude is that we try to make everything we do become the "NEXT BIG THING".  It isn't enough just to do your job, keep your nose clean, and keep plugging away.  Swinging for the fences is what it is all about.  And we exhaust ourselves with this behavior.  We only apply ourselves to something huge, and let the little steps drift away. 

Think of the places you see this play out...

The husband who was a hopeless romantic when you dated, but now comes home from work, sits on the couch until he falls asleep and doesn't remember that this weekend your mom is coming to visit.

The athlete who had a great year, and comes back from the off season 40 pounds overweight and unwilling to listen to his coaches anymore...because he knows better!

The church that did things in a certain way 20 years ago and grew rapidly.  And so today, they keep doing that same thing, and are confused and frustrated that the young families they used to reach no longer visit them and stay. 

The parent who was really engaged with their son when he was young, but don't know the name of their teenagers best friend today.


What got me thinking about this is from studying Exodus.  It starts with this reminder of Joseph and his brothers and then says, "Then a new king to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt".   And thus began the downfall.

We don't know the particulars of the Israelites experiences post Joseph and Pre-Slavery, but that is an important line for us.  It would seem to indicate that the successive generations were quite willing to ride on the coattails of Great Uncle Joe.  And when his impact was no longer relevant and contemporary, they were on the outs. 

They didn't make a name for themselves on "This Day", they let yesterday do their work for them. 

Life is a series of repeats.  Every day you have to climb back up that hill.  Carry that torch.  Do your job. 

Where are you today?  Are you willing to put in the work you did yesterday?  Or, are you coasting?  You might think coasting is the easy option.  But let me tell you that is a lie.  Playing catch up is always more exhausting than just doing a little bit of the right thing every day.

Staying Up when the Storms Come

Confession time:  I am not a very good gymnast.  Shocking I know.... I can't do a cartwheel, swing on the uneven bars, spin on the rings, or, leap over the horse thingy and do flips as I soar gracefully over.  But you know what I can do, walk on a balance beam.

The trick to walking successfully over a balance beam is really quite simple, and somewhat non-intuitive.  Don't look down at your feet, keep your head level and look forward.  I am sure that there is some sort of neurological reason for it, but I don't like doing research, so.....just trust me...SCIENCE!  But it does make sense, when you hyper focus on the ground you are more likely to lose your sense of directive balance.  Looking at your destination is more sure-fire recipe for success. 

Life illustration moment.......You can't allow yourself to lose your forward looking focus and momentum.  We have such a tendency to become consumed by the finite moments we get ourselves into.  Tunnel vision sets in and all we can sense and know seems to be the mud we are currently standing in.  Success in life is deeply rooted in a "tomorrow" vision.  When we live only stuck in the moment of our current condition(YOLO anyone...??) we make terrible choices and get even more stuck. 

Instead, when we have a vision that takes us out of where we are right now and sees where we are heading, it becomes infinitely easier to keep moving and not get lost in the moment.  Life is full of this.  And we are so prone to forgetting the future and being consumed by the present. 

Don't misread me.  Life isn't just a destination, we do need to embrace the immediacy of each day, but we can't become controlled by today.  What is happening to you, and, in your life, right now, is NOT THE END. 

What is your future focus?

In Matthew 14 we have this beautiful story of the disciples going ahead of Jesus on a boat.  Soon a strong wind buffets the boat with waves and Jesus walks out on the water to join them.  At first the disciples are a bit disconcerted assuming they are seeing a ghost.  Jesus says, "Nope, just me fellas(my paraphrase) and Peter says let me come out to you.

Peter wants to experience the power of Jesus.  He doesn't want to just sit in the boat and observe, he wants to leap right into the miraculous.  How often we content ourselves to sitting on the boat and accepting the mundane and boring life when the miraculous is right on the other side of the bow?!?! 

And he does it!

At first.....

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

He lost his focus on the destination, saw the problems, and he sank. 

There are two places you and I often find ourselves in;  1) To afraid to run to Jesus because we only see the "danger" in getting out of the boat.  2)  We lose our courage not long after starting off and we find ourselves sometimes in a more difficult place then we were before.

You are not made to sit in the boat.  Jesus is out there, calling you to join him.  Get up.  Get going.

Don't lose focus and courage once you start.  We start with good intentions, and that is when things can get frightening.  We are out of our comfort zone, it is scarier than we thought it was.  Too often we start off in a good way, but we don't follow through.  Sell out and run to Christ.

The great thing about Grace though is that even when we lose our footing Jesus doesn't give up on us.

 ^"Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him"

How encouraging.  How beautiful.  How true to my own heart.  So many times I set out with great intentions, and forget who I am looking towards.  Soon I find myself in over my head and drowning.  When I call out for help there isn't a lecture, or a thoughtful discussion on my mistakes.  IMMEDIATELY Jesus reaches out His hand and catches me. 

Walk with courage towards Christ, and know that when you fall prey to the storms in your life, you are not alone.  You will be lifted back up and you can begin again.

Regret and Redemption

We love redemption stories.  Some of the most popular movies are about heroes who have made mistakes, been down a dark path, but find their way back to be the hero.  One of my guilty pleasures is the show "True Hollywood Stories".  Without fail, at approximately the midpoint of the show, the narrators voice gets foreboding as he says, "but then it allllll fell apart......"  Then the rest of the show details their recovery from the fall from grace.

Why do these stories resonate with us? 

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God"

Within each of our experiences we have a consistent theme of mistakes and regrets.  And sometimes those regrets are debilitating.  Bridges have been burned, lives ruined, futures deterred.  Often the weight of the heartache of our past(and even present) creates an inability to even perceive a future that could be shaped by hope and joy.

There is a quiet desperation in all of us that weeps over that which we cannot fix.  Decisions that cannot be undecided.  Actions that cannot be changed.

How do we move forward?  How can the future be different from our past?

The other day I came across one of the most powerful quotes.  It was in the context of how faithful Christians should read the Old Testament.  It said that when we read/interact/try to understand the Old Testament we should do so with the Shadow of Christ cast over it.

????

Everything that we struggle understanding in the OT takes a new shape when we read it through the understanding of Christ moving within it towards the New Covenant.  Nothing that has happened makes sense and has hope and value if it is not moving us towards Christ.  And, if it is moving us towards Christ, even that which was difficult becomes a beautiful testimony of hope within hurt.

How can we move forward?  How can the future be different from our past?

Allowing the shadow of Christ to cover your past. 

In the story of the regrets that dominate our hearts we cannot hope to have hope without redemption.  Redemption does not make that which you have done, or that which was done to you, suddenly become "ok", or "right".  But it changes the results from destruction to construction. 

Joseph(from the hit musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat) is the picture of what this looks like.  His brothers have quite literally destroyed his life.  When, years later, he has the chance to confront them, he says, "What you have intended for evil, God intended for God to accomplish what he is now doing"   His brothers had done evil against him, but God never let Joesph's hope be defined by what happened to him, but what God was going to do through him and for him.

When we stand alone we cannot redefine our past.  There is only one who stands outside and inside of time who straddles the reality of our lives and shapes it according to His purposes.  What choice will we make?  To give Him control to redeem and heal what has happened?  Or, will we allow the infection of past pains rot us away from the inside?

Run.  Run to the one who will take your pain and give you promise.  Lay down your burdens and rest in the shadow of the Almighty and rest.

The hope of redemption is in forgiveness.  In Christ everything

 is forgiven, EVERYTHING is redeemable

 

Living in the Moment, but never YOLO....

Matthew 6:27
"Who of you by worrying can add a single our to his life?"

I recently heard a celebrity share about meeting a fan a while back.  The fan never took his eyes of his phone screen as he taped and took pictures of the whole brief meeting.  Wasn't even able to shake hands well because he wasn't looking.  The celebrity was really taken aback by the whole thing.  Didn't you want to meet me?  You can look at pictures of me online anytime you want!!

As a people, we have lost the simple enjoyment of being in the moment.  Every brief experience is only a reflection of something that has come before, or, a prelude to something tomorrow.  We grow restless.  Discontent.  Frustrated.  And the more we refuse to embrace the moment, the more we lose that moment forever. 

A recent study on memory showed that all this constant picture taking of events that we all like to do actually is hampering our ability to create actual memories.  Do you get that?  Taking pictures to have a memory is causing you to actually not have a real memory.  Only a photograph that becomes you looking at someone else's life.

We never live in the moment.  Either the past holds us captive, or, anxiety and dreams about the future diminish our "nows".  Think about it.  How many moments today did you find yourself reliving some past event that you regret(or enjoyed)?  How much energy did you put forth to contemplating scenarios about "tomorrow" that you have little to no control over?  And the more we do that, replay sparkly HD memory films, the more we resent how dull it currently is. 

If only it was yesterday........ 

Tomorrow can't come soon enough.....

Jesus shouts out through the din.  He says, "YOU HAVE NO CONTROL.....YOU MAY VERY WELL DIE TONIGHT!"  But also, within that, he gently encourages us...."God is the source of your hope, and HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN TODAY!"

Something that is disgustingly popular today is the phraise, "YOLO", or, "You Only Live Once".  It's meant to be a sort of rallying cry to just be crazy right now because who knows what might happen to you.  And someone might be reading this and thinking, "Yah, Jesus, the original YOLO'er!".  If you are thinking that, please slap yourself. 

This is not Jesus telling you to just embrace the crazy side of you and do something outlandish.  The context is about finding God in each moment that you have.  Giving Him your past pains and your future frets.  To live in the freedom of the now knowing that He is going to do what is right for you ALWAYS.

There is a powerful shift that takes place when we begin to live in the moment the way Jesus calls us to. 

When God owns our now, our past begins to reveal that patterns of hope and love that He was laying down for us, even while we were His enemies.  And our past becomes a testimony of Joy found in trials.

When God owns our now, our future becomes a wide open tapestry that is not controlled or defined by any one experience, event, relationship, or pain.  And our future no longer becomes something we have to try to make happen, but simply to experience.

You are not the person you were yesterday.  You are not the person  you will be tomorrow.  Don't give those people to God.  Give Him who you are right now.  And they will become His as well.

Always a Let Down

Matthew 6:19
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal"

You know why I like to sin?

Because there is an immediate pay off.

 Like, right then. 

Whatever it might be, I get what it is I wanted.  And in that moment, it can feel soooo good.  Whether it is giving in to anger, having not so pure thoughts, being lazy(favorite one), or, being SELFISH(another biggie), pursuit of that "thing" gives me the immediate sense of "stocking up".

Putting the things of God first rarely has an immediate emotional payoff.  Sort of like buying a new video game feels a lot better today then saving $60 in the bank does.  Sure, I know I want to save money, but that game is going to be soooo much fun....for the week.....

In Matthew, Jesus has some strong, and honest, words for us.  What we store up for ourselves here in our flesh(earth) is all going away.  It does not actually meet the deep need that you felt that drove you to whatever it was you did.  For a moment you have something stored up, but soon it will be gone, and you are left empty again. 

Only in Christ are we able to build something that lasts. 

Be honest with yourself.  When you pursue the things that are diametrically in opposition to what God calls you to, how is the long term return on investment?  Pretty poor? 

Don't be surprised.

Get mad.

See, you keep telling yourself a lie, and you keep believing it.  That "this" thing, "this" behavior, "this" relationship, "this" action, will finally help you settle down.  Feel more like yourself.  Give you some breathing room.  Provide some peace. 

At first it does.

But it never lasts.

It always ends up being a let down.

We are made for more than what we accept for ourselves.  In your mothers womb God knit you together and called you by name.  You are an immortal soul bound currently in mortal trials.  And too often, bogged down by them.

Do you want to feel peace, hope, fulfillment, joy?  Then start investing in something that will actually provide that.  The payoff isn't always immediate, but it is lasting.  And the compounding interest will blow your mind.

Charles Spurgeon said "The greatest sin we commit is sacrificing what we want most in the world for what we want right now". 

Stop sacrificing your future for what you want right now.  Start investing in things that will actually last.

Ironically, this movies title worked on multiple levels.  Who would have thought a film starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McGhonnneghhyyyy(sp?) could have been so terrible....