Saturday, June 26, 2004

When It's All Dark...Then What?

Well yes, actually, the travel brochure does mention periods of darkness. It also, if you read it closely, promises times of great difficulty on your journey. Perhaps if you were to actually open it and not just look at the pretty picture on the cover, sir, you would notice these items clearly listed for you. There are also many travel advisories to aid you in surpassing these hazards so as to make it to the destination with fulness of joy. Oh yes, I almost forgot, you also have to leave this travel office to embark upon your journey, the brochure is not your destination after all, is it sir?

How often do I end up in this man's shoes? Too often! As it says in "Waking the Dead" by John Eldridge, I forget that I am at war to obtain the promises spoken. Gee, you'd think with my love for good war movies I would have some understanding that this would be hard. Yet every time the sun sets all I can see is the flash of artillery and the only sounds between explosions are the suspicious night sounds of a possible enemy sneak attack. These are the times when the sunshiney days at the top of the hill of victory seem so far away. Hunkering down in the foxhole there is a lot of time to reflect upon oneself that is not afforded during the rush through the middle of a firefight. The darkness is where the propaganda megaphone is pulled out and the faceless voice taunts you. Even your great victory is dissected into so many pieces that it is difficult to see how you considered it such a sensation. In fact how can you be sure it wasn't actually a planned retreat by your enemy to draw you into this place where you now find yourself? Even dawn's promise comes into question. Hmmm, what did my recruiter tell me to do??


Satiation

How deep and endless, from my eyes,
Does the gulf of my indigence appear.
And here I find Your great wonder,
The unsearchable fullness of Your giving
Beyond all that my eye can see
Or yet that my want may want;
And when perchance You step within the clouds
Then endless still is the well
Where Your memory dwells
Here I drink of the faith birthed in times of sight
Only to find this faith
Is a harbour in the sea of Your faithfulness
For You gave in time to give against the time
Of all my want.

(Brad Koop-March 21,2003)

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

O.K., Once You're Suspended, Then What?

There is a line from a Rik Leaf song which talks about the fear of hanging suspended in God. I have always loved this line because it so simply captures the essence of our trust in God. So often I have seen myself as standing on some piece of earth next to my Father, but this simple phrase is the reality. I stand on nothing but God. In Him I live and move and have my being. This actually gives me the Mufasah's (See Lion King if you haven't already. Yes even if you don't have kids). The problem seems to lie in precisely that fact of getting the freaky tinglies. It is fun when you know where it is going, like the roller coaster that threatens your involuntary control of certain bodily functions. Here you can see the track ahead and you have some means of preparing for the experience. Not so with God. He has the future well in hand, but He gives us our daily bread. The roller coaster suddenly has no track but that which is right beneath us. Hmmm, I wonder how long the line-up would be for this one? Yet the thrill seekers of our day should be all over this one, don't you think?

PS If you blow the dust away and cut off the mold around the edges Rik actually has a website. We are not sure about his whereabouts but his site is here.

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

You Did What??!!

Yes indeed there will be those times in our lives where this question will be put to us. Of course as Jesus said those born of the Spirit will probably have this question put to them more often than anyone. (Check John 3:8 for reference) There should be a definable eccentricity to our lives as we follow our Lord. His footsteps rarely landed in a sequence we would have determined for them and at every turn this question was being put to Him. Family will ask it, even as His family did. The world will minimalise and marginalise it as it did to Him. The religious will scorn, deride, and even attempt to destroy those who live this way. Are we prepared to be the parade of fools? Is it possible that the accusation of drunkard followed our Lord because of His seemingly erratic footsteps and "life choices"? Of course we have the luxury of two thousand years of scholarly debate and saintly insight to help us understand. We have the written word and the Spirit of God to heal our eyes. Back then they could not turn a page or peruse a harmony of the gospels to see that indeed there was a harmony to His every step. Perhaps this safe distance is not so safe after all. Does our life have the marks of the joyous drunken stagger our Lord's bore? Is this blasphemy? I think not. Check the footsteps of His life and try to look at each as if you did not know what was coming next. He obviously did not carry a daytimer. Consider then that His disciples stuck it out with Him even through all of this seeming absurdity. It was the beauty of Christ that captivated them not His sensibility, alas for Judas.
Hmmm, I wonder then what I should do today?