re-solve: 1. to decide firmly
2. to state fomally
3. to dispell
4. to solve
In everyday things we are looking for our happy ending. We believe things will be better when we get to the next stage in life. If only I had a boyfriend, if only I was married, if only I had my promotion, if only the kids where grown...and we wish away the stages of our life. When we can resolve the stage of life we are in by "stating formally" what we have learned from it, we consider ourselves ready to move onto the next phase, the next chapter so to speak. Neat, clean, and over.
Then we "arrive" at the next stage and find that it's not everything we thought. The moment think we have it figured out something happens to make us wonder why movies do not show us anything beyond the ending we knew was coming for the last hour. Relationships get shaky, health fades, jobs are cut, and we get passed by. But we have our happy ending we worked hard for...and we had no idea it was going to leave us wanting more.
So what do we do with that desire, the want and need for more? Often, we begin the cycle again, and look for the next thing to want. What should this next phase look like? And we are tired, overstressed, overworked, and our relationships are suffering. Only when we pause and evalute and bring our needs before our Creator God, the Lord Jesus Christ, does the inner peace begin to flow. Things begin to sort themselves out. And pausing becomes okay.
As I read through the Bible I do not get a sense of resolve in very many of the stories and accounts contained within the covers. The disciples died awaiting the return of thier Master, the Isrealites continue to long for their homeland, Esther saved her people but you cannot help but wonder if she still desired to be called upon more often by her husband. Even the Nativity story builds and builds but there is still no resolve. Luke 2 recounts the desire, the tension, and questions Elizabeth and Zechariah must have had as they waited and longed for a child. Of course we know John the Baptist arrived on the scene but we also see that he is rejected by the religious leaders of the day and later beheaded. Mary and Joseph work hard to protect thier son Jesus from harm, by fleeing to Egypt to escape the slaughter of Herod, to only lose Him at the temple when He was a young teenager, to see Him crucified. Of course, He is resurrected and appears to His disciples but, they are left waiting...
I believe that the paradox is this: there exists a holy tension that contends for our attention. It calls to us in the quietness of the soul, silently shouting: THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS ALREADY BUT NOT YET! We are bound by this thing called time. It limits us from the proper view of Christ and His fullness, it remains unresolved because while we have glimpsed His majesty it has not encompassed us. Donald Miller writes in Blue Like Jazz that he "never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself...I used to not like God because God didn't resolve." We feel disappointed in our relationships with God at moments because the resolution and resolve elludes us...and that fusturates us. We feel as though God is holding out on us when we cannot package Him in a neat story, or close the book and walk away until we are ready to engage in the next chapter. And to me that is the beauty of Him and life.
We are not meant to have happy endings on earth because the happiest of all endings (all of creation in restoration with God and the arrival of the New Heaven's and New Earth) have not yet occured in our time frame. Yes, the books have been written, but we have not experienced it. So the tension fights in us. Every chapter of our lives that we expect to feel like we have arrived or receive contentment out of is an echo of what is to come! So view the chapters in your life as part of a greater story that is still being read. God has written it in such a way you will not be able to guess at it's ending.
Dear Jesus, thank you that you are the author and finisher of my faith. That your presence is fully present even when I cannot clearly understand the tension that exists in my life. Thank you that Christ in me is the hope of Glory, and that is the greatest story every told. I love you. And I love that you allow me to serve you. Yours in Service.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Beyond Happy
We can often be found in pursuit of many things in our lives: prosperity, good health, youthfulness, job sucess, relational security, and so many other things. We admit to being in pursuit of the good things in our lives and often feel victim to the negative things in our lives. We believe that if we can pursue enough of the good things in our lives to outweigh the negative then the balance of happiness will be tipped in our favor and our life will take on meaning, and true lasting happiness will be found. However, just as we begin to feel settled and happiness emerges something happens to shake our cup and we realize again happiness is fleeting and circumstantial. So where does that leave us in our pursuits?
Our pursuits are often in vain and result in us feeling disappointed. This is because we are pursuing the wrong things. Is there anything worth pursuing that will leave us with a joy that lasts? That gives us a "pervasive sense of well-being"? There is a book in the Bible titled Isaiah that address the problem of circumstantial happiness and shows us a people group who where promised joy...that's lasting, by a God who saw fit to intervene not only in their circumstances, but in thier hearts. Scholars believe Isaiah 35 was written between 550-540 BC when the people of Isreal where cast out of their homeland. If ever a time for panic was to be it was then. They where faced with exile, anxiety, homelessness, and hopelessness. However, the words of Isaiah 35 are filled with hope, joy, and the promise of peace.
There is no doubt that the Isrealites could see no foreseeable way out of their situation and back into the homeland that they loved but as Isaiah 34 comes to a close this enticement, invitation if you will is presented to them: Isaiah 34:16, "Search the book of the Lord, and see what he will do. He will not miss a single detail. Not one of these birds and animals will be missing, and none will lack a mate, for the Lord has promised this. His Spirit will make it come true." Chapter 35 opens with the same promises...verse 2: "There will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy!...verse 3 With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands and encourage those who have weak knees. Say to those who are afraid, "Be strong and do not fear, for your God is coming..." verse 10 "Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return to Jerusalem, singing songs of everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be overcome with joy and gladness." What is it that causes the writer of Isaiah to dare believe these words of coming joy? What causes him to pen these promises of everlasting peace and promise?
The writer of Isaiah had found that the key to joy, was the presence of God. The abiding presence that cuts through circumstances, that moves beyond our fears, that seeks to bring light to the darkest of situations. Where God's presence is found, joy begings to come forth. At first drop by tiny drop, then a trickle, to an overwhelming flood. While happiness depends on "hapenstance, joy floods and invades even the darkest corners of our heart." Fredrick Buchner said, "While God created us in and created us for joy and in the long run not all the darkness in the world or in ourselves can keep us from our joy. Whatever else it (it means that we are created in God's image) is that even when we cannot believe, when we feel the most spiritually bankrupt and deserted God's mark is deep within us." And that mark is joy. Deep and everlasting. The "pervasive sense of well being" despite circumstances.
We who walk with the Lord have nothing to fear. Our joy cannot be taken from us because it is a part of us. When we invite the presence of God into our lives, healing and restoration takes place. Depression flees and our circumstances begin to change, because our perspective changes. Our deepest pursuit should become not a pursuit of happiness but a pursuit of the presence of God in our lives. As our pursuits move beyond the pursuit of happiness and to the pursuit of His presence our hearts begin to change.
This season as we celebrate the birth of Christ let us see fit to remember that the promise of our Savior is this: Emmanuel, God with us. Peace on Earth and good-will to men. Inspite of the looming promises of war, a still faltering econonmy, cancer diagnoses, loniliness, and heart-ache: God with us. A God who invites us to: Search the book of the Lord, and see what he will do, then PROMISES He will not miss a single detail.
Jesus, my Lord, thank you that you see the details of my life. You know the circumstances of my heart and you choose to keep your promises to me inspite of them. You know me and are honest with me. You hear my cries and my longings. You did not just save me from punishement on the day of judgement, but you choose a relationship with me. That's all I need to be well. Amen
Our pursuits are often in vain and result in us feeling disappointed. This is because we are pursuing the wrong things. Is there anything worth pursuing that will leave us with a joy that lasts? That gives us a "pervasive sense of well-being"? There is a book in the Bible titled Isaiah that address the problem of circumstantial happiness and shows us a people group who where promised joy...that's lasting, by a God who saw fit to intervene not only in their circumstances, but in thier hearts. Scholars believe Isaiah 35 was written between 550-540 BC when the people of Isreal where cast out of their homeland. If ever a time for panic was to be it was then. They where faced with exile, anxiety, homelessness, and hopelessness. However, the words of Isaiah 35 are filled with hope, joy, and the promise of peace.
There is no doubt that the Isrealites could see no foreseeable way out of their situation and back into the homeland that they loved but as Isaiah 34 comes to a close this enticement, invitation if you will is presented to them: Isaiah 34:16, "Search the book of the Lord, and see what he will do. He will not miss a single detail. Not one of these birds and animals will be missing, and none will lack a mate, for the Lord has promised this. His Spirit will make it come true." Chapter 35 opens with the same promises...verse 2: "There will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy!...verse 3 With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands and encourage those who have weak knees. Say to those who are afraid, "Be strong and do not fear, for your God is coming..." verse 10 "Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return to Jerusalem, singing songs of everlasting joy. Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be overcome with joy and gladness." What is it that causes the writer of Isaiah to dare believe these words of coming joy? What causes him to pen these promises of everlasting peace and promise?
The writer of Isaiah had found that the key to joy, was the presence of God. The abiding presence that cuts through circumstances, that moves beyond our fears, that seeks to bring light to the darkest of situations. Where God's presence is found, joy begings to come forth. At first drop by tiny drop, then a trickle, to an overwhelming flood. While happiness depends on "hapenstance, joy floods and invades even the darkest corners of our heart." Fredrick Buchner said, "While God created us in and created us for joy and in the long run not all the darkness in the world or in ourselves can keep us from our joy. Whatever else it (it means that we are created in God's image) is that even when we cannot believe, when we feel the most spiritually bankrupt and deserted God's mark is deep within us." And that mark is joy. Deep and everlasting. The "pervasive sense of well being" despite circumstances.
We who walk with the Lord have nothing to fear. Our joy cannot be taken from us because it is a part of us. When we invite the presence of God into our lives, healing and restoration takes place. Depression flees and our circumstances begin to change, because our perspective changes. Our deepest pursuit should become not a pursuit of happiness but a pursuit of the presence of God in our lives. As our pursuits move beyond the pursuit of happiness and to the pursuit of His presence our hearts begin to change.
This season as we celebrate the birth of Christ let us see fit to remember that the promise of our Savior is this: Emmanuel, God with us. Peace on Earth and good-will to men. Inspite of the looming promises of war, a still faltering econonmy, cancer diagnoses, loniliness, and heart-ache: God with us. A God who invites us to: Search the book of the Lord, and see what he will do, then PROMISES He will not miss a single detail.
Jesus, my Lord, thank you that you see the details of my life. You know the circumstances of my heart and you choose to keep your promises to me inspite of them. You know me and are honest with me. You hear my cries and my longings. You did not just save me from punishement on the day of judgement, but you choose a relationship with me. That's all I need to be well. Amen
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)