Tag: Finishing

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Take This to Heart

This has been a year of mourning for me, having lost my step-father in February, a sister-in-law in August, and a friend who died tragically last week. Shock and grief have been the houseguests who stayed too long; social distancing is lost on them. Yet God is glorified in all things, and His sovereignty is not shaken in seemingly hopeless times, even in death. He is our sure and certain hope, so we do well to experience these moments in honest contemplation and complete openness before Him. Wrote Solomon, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.”1 These are healthy words; this is timeless wisdom.

Though I have been a believer in Jesus Christ for many years now, I have struggled to understand the natural order of this life wherein we grow and learn that we may thrive—and raise another generation to do the same—only to find that, by the time we truly start to figure things out, we’ve reached its end and it is time for us to go. Why do we have so little time to savor the wisdom it took us so long to gain? It seems like such mockery, in a way. But as I sat beside my step-father in what would be his final hours, Paul’s teaching on life, death and resurrection came to mind. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies,” he said, “When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed…”2 The apostle went on to conclude, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”3 Though we would miss my step-father in the years to come, this was his appointed time of stepping away from the old and into the new. Perhaps Solomon had this in mind as he mused, “the day of death better than the day of birth.”4

Then for us who are born into new life in Christ, our eventual maturity into wisdom is not mockery at all, but rather preparation and assurance for a dying seed about to burst forth into its eternal destiny of unimaginable splendor. For our God is good, even in death. We, the living, can take this to heart.

Father, you have made us for yourself, and you desire us to be with you and in you through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Thank you. Fill us, that we would glorify you here as we await your glory in the unending age to come. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Ecclesiastes 7:2
2 1 Corinthians 15:36, 37
3 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
4 Ecclesiastes 7:1

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Distractions

“You were my focuser,” my mother reflected as we sat at the kitchen table. She spoke in past tense perhaps as one recalling earlier days when her brood lived under one roof, or maybe with only weeks left to live, she was viewing life retrospectively as one who had reached its end. Whether a focuser or not had never occurred to me, but I accepted the perspective only a mother could know, albeit with a twist of irony, for I am also fairly adept at becoming distracted. It is a broadly shared trait; consider Martha, for instance. Hosting Jesus in her home, she was “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made,”1 while her sister Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.”2 Her hot-button duly pushed, the miffed Martha elevated her complaint to her Messiah-guest. “Martha, Martha,” Jesus gently replied, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.”3 Then came the last thing a tattling sibling might want to hear: “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”4

We would intellectually agree it is better to sit before Jesus and listen to Him than to consume ourselves entirely with the self-imposing dictates of the day. In actuality, though, we naturally succumb to the opposite, filling our time with lesser activities, many of which are unimportant and ultimately unsatisfying. We all have them, and it helps to name them, so what keeps you from talking and listening to Him who “has the words of eternal life”?5 Are we, like David, “surely distracted, because of the voice of the enemy”—those who threaten us in some way?6 Are we diverted by “the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things”?7 Do we consume today, worrying about tomorrow—what will eat, drink or wear?8 Or perhaps for you it is a matter of how you schedule, filling the calendar first with the temporal and leaving little room for the eternal.

To the Philippian believers, Paul wrote, “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”9 Isn’t this our focal point, where we are headed? Isn’t this what matters, and doesn’t it prioritize our day? It was for the apostle a clear future vision that charted his daily life: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”10 There is no higher purpose in life than to draw near to God—speaking in prayer and listening through His Word—and to live this life undistracted and aligned with His Kingdom purposes. It starts anew each day.

Father, strengthen me in your Spirit to resist distractions, and draw me close to you. Grace me, then, to rest in you as I discern and pursue the things I must do today. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

1 Luke 10:40
2 Luke 10:39
3 Luke 10:41, 42
4 Luke 10:42
5 John 6:69
6 Psalm 55:2 NASB
7 Mark 4:19
8 Matthew 6:25
9 Philippians 3:20
10 Philippians 3:13, 14

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Starting Where We Stand

We had never had hurricane damage like this before; we live in Ohio, after all. But Ike was different: making landfall in Galveston, Texas, it held a disproportionate share of its damage in reserve for the upper Midwest part of the country, including our backyard, which was entirely mid-calf or deeper in branches, limbs and twigs. It was September 2008, I was away for the week on business, and there stood Peggy, facing the enormous clean-up job alone and wondering, “Where do I start?” Then starting where she stood, it took this hard-working woman three whole days to bag, bundle and/or burn the debris.

Sometimes on our life-journey, the Kingdom work before us seems overwhelming—paralyzing, even. All around, there is brokenness in need of care, so where do we start? Every day, there is Spiritual birth in need of nurturing; of whom shall we come alongside? No matter where we are, someone is searching for truth, then when must we speak, and what should we say? Far too long, I was so paralyzed by the smallness of my imprint against the vastness of need, that I did very little to start at all. But somewhere along the way I began to see and understand God works chiefly through His people, and His people are everywhere. In my mind, I had limited God to the confines of my own span and abilities, yet every day the body of Christ rises around the globe, each member starting where they stand. This is the beauty of the body.

We must not be overwhelmed by the enormity of need in the world, for God’s people are all around it. We ought not be paralyzed by our limitations, for it is God who works in and through us. We need only to be diligent in seeking His guidance for direction, trusting in His faithfulness to act, and submissive to start where we stand and go from there—ready and eager for whatever awaits us today.

God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. (Hebrews 6:10, 11).

Father, you are good, and we trust you. Lead us today to where we should go and in what we must say and do. You will do great things through your people today; you always do. We love you, God. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.