Tag: A Word for Wednesday

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GOAT

“How can someone be so much better than the best?” my brother mused one day. We were talking about Wayne Gretzky, hockey’s “Great One,” who remains without question the best who’s ever played the game. The GOAT (greatest of all time) debate is a bit less settled in some other sports, though many would single out basketball’s Michael Jordan or football’s Jim Brown as standouts over and above an unabridged listing of their peers, and when it comes to the weightier matters of world leadership, the GOAT designation is even more elusive.

Israel’s King Solomon—glorious as he was in wealth and wisdom—looked forward to a Ruler so great as to be without peer. “All kings will bow down to him and all nations serve him,”1 he wrote. What would elevate this Sovereign above all the others? “He will deliver the needy who cry out … the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak … and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.”2 It would be His divine nature to love and His eternal power to act on such love that set Him apart from all others. Who wouldn’t want this Royal?

The King has come; His name is Jesus. He came first to deliver us from our sins—a merciful scapegoat, bearing our justice—and to build His kingdom “not of this world.”3 And herein lies another difference between the heavenly King and all earthly rulers: our risen King does not rule by external decree, but by inner transformation. He changes our hearts to rescue the oppressed, and His love overwhelms us to the point of overflowing to others. We give to His kingdom not through heavy-handed taxation, but through open-handed generosity; we fight His enemy not as a people conscripted into battle, but as a people convicted of His cause.

Jesus will come again, this time to rule over all. Sin will be vanquished, and all will be new. At that time—and at His name—“every knee [shall] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”4 There will be no GOAT debate; everyone from great to small will honor Him. So, why wait? Let’s worship Him with submitted lives now.

Father, thank you for loving us so much as to send your Son. I confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Send your Spirit to lead me in your way today, that this life would bring glory to you. Amen.

1 Psalm 72:11
2 Psalm 72:12-14
3 John 18:36
4 Philippians 2:10-12

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Holy Ground

Christmas changes us. We join family and friends in festive celebration, of course, and we take time to ponder the reason for the season, but Christmas marks the advent of “God with us,” and both we and our place in the world are forever changed because of Christ.

The Bible teaches that wherever the Lord is, is holy. This is why in the Old Testament Moses and, later, Joshua were told to remove their sandals, for they found themselves standing on “holy ground”—in the presence of God. But now that Jesus has come and redeemed us as His own, He is both with us and in us. We are, says Paul, “a temple of the Holy Spirit.”1 Wherever we are, He is; wherever we go, He goes; wherever we stand is holy ground, for God is present.

So, we live and move and breathe with newfound purpose. Ours is to embrace the grace we have received and to share the love and truth of God wherever we are. For the Lord is present and where He is, is holy.

Ask yourself:

  1. Does sharing Christ feel like an obligation I have to do for God, or a privilege I get to do with God?
  2. Can I just for today offer myself to the Spirit and trust Him to work through an imperfect and awkward me?

Father, thank you for making me a dwelling place for your Spirit. I am humbled by such great love. Where I am, you are, so use me as you will for your purposes and your glory. Amen.

Christ in me is holiness.

1 1 Corinthians 6:19

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Anticipation and Reality

It was in a conversation with my boss one afternoon that I aired a measure of uneasiness over a difficult discussion I would be initiating with a colleague within the next few days to come. He listened with patience and then offered the perspective of one not as closely attached to the matter. “The dread of anticipation is worse than the pain of reality,” he quipped. I sat in silence for a moment, a half-grin registering my appreciation of the insight of his adage, its suitability to the situation, and a pithy turn of a phrase.

There are much weightier matters in life than a business meeting, of course, and it is true reality can arrive with a harshness exceeding our expectations. Haven’t we found, though, that tomorrow almost never transpires exactly as we think or fear it may? Then isn’t it also the case we have wasted irretrievable real-time worrying about an imagined tomorrow that never materialized? Can we even begin to assess the amount of empty tonnage we’ve needlessly heaped upon the legitimate burdens of our days? It is a data point I prefer not to know.

When it comes to worrying about tomorrow, Jesus offers this advice in the form of a command: Don’t. “Do not worry about tomorrow,” he said, “for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”1 We welcome divine wisdom from Him in whom “all the fulness of Deity lives in bodily form.”2 Still, calendar pages march toward us as they always have, relentless and single-file to a drumbeat of unchanging tempo. Tomorrows become todays, each in its own scheduled time; we cannot hasten them and live them prematurely, nor can we delay them or wish any away. How, then, do we approach tomorrow without adding to the troubles of today?

We can pray, plan and prepare, of course, seeking wisdom from our generous God, for He gladly gives it to those who ask.3 So, too, we let God’s works in the past—whether protecting us against, delivering us from, or sustaining us through the pain of reality—strengthen us for tomorrow; as said the psalmist, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.”4 But I think the most crucial thing for us as we face the future is to trust the character of Him who owns tomorrow and knows it as thoroughly as any day already transpired. We have no need to doubt Him and empower such doubt with worry, for “The Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”5 This is who He is; this is who He always will be. We rest in Him.

Father, in all things you work for the good of those who love you and have been called according to your purpose. This includes all my tomorrows. Thank you. I leave them in your hands. Lead me in peace, joy and purpose today. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 6:34
2 Colossians 2:9
3 James 1:5
4 Psalm 77:11
5 Psalm 100:5