......
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Suffering is part of life in Christ. Jesus didn't come to bring peace on earth, but a sword -- He said it! And this walk isn't for the fainthearted. But it also isn't for the ones who proudly boast they can surely do it all. The former will find themselves eaten up at the first difficult conflict. The latter will try to fight in their own strength and will end up prey to their own pride. The ones who will come Home, in the end, are those who lean not on their own strength, either in fear of their weakness or overconfidence in themselves, but rather have poured all confidence into Christ's provision for them
whatever comes along.
As children of God, our hearts still experience hurt. We are affected by the decisions of fellow brethren, friends, and family members -- by decisions of our Lord about things our souls long for but that He knows otherwise about -- by Satan's deadly and oh-so-effective missiles of bitterness, heartache, betrayal, isolation, loneliness, and fear.
Sometimes in the midst of those feelings there seems to be nothing much going
right to provide a balm (although as an aside - there always is :). But when I look at the above list of earth-struggles - when I really
think about that list - those things are exactly what Jesus either experienced or was tempted by while He was here, all of them, except in a magnitude that we will never even come
close to. What right have we to feel sorry for ourselves when Christ went through just this and infinitely MORE, merely to save us, human beings who had no right to eternal life at all?
And what does "going right" really mean, anyway?? Did the apostles think things were "going right" when the King of Israel was hung on a cross (despite His repeated attempts to help them understand this would happen)? Did James's brethren not grieve when he was one of the first apostles to be martyred for his faith? And yet ... in God's eyes, in the full measure of His wisdom and foresight, these things were ... Right. Not right in the sense that they were pure and sinless things and God was pleased with those who did them -- but they were consistent with the Plan and the consequences of following it. There would be suffering and death and horrific torture for the brethren who chose to follow Jesus Christ -- but they accepted it and kept right on going because their perspective was powerfully different from the rest of humanity's. They had a true understanding of what "going right" really meant, what God's understanding of it always was and still is. That "Going Right" in this life is Discipline. It is Instruction. It is Preparation. It is things that keep us longing for Home and reminding us this world isn't what we should be living for. It
is sometimes pain and loneliness
and heartache. It is also deep and fulfilling joy in Christ, confidence in this life knowing that this is all going to end one day and we'll be at peace. It is HOPE.
I guess my point is, our concept of Going Right needs to be consistent with God's Going Right. We'll never find peace here unless that happens and that ONLY happens when our faith is in God's ability to see what we don't and know what we can't. Only then will WE be able to see beyond the moment.
One of the verses of the hymn "In His Time" says,
"Though the answer [to your prayers] may not be what you think that it should be, He will answer every need in His time." That's hard. When our hopes for our lives have turned out quite the opposite -- when they've been broken and discombobulated and turned upside down -- it's tough being reconciled to that and to accepting and living
in the lives we have now. But you know what? Even then -- life's Going Right! Because God knows what we don't. He cares for us and He will always do what is right for us as long as we follow Him. He can see beyond the moment, and therefore so should we. To heaven. To the time when we and our brothers and sisters who have
all experienced similar earth-struggles will be at peace, and we will no longer
have to struggle. That is beautiful to think about.
So. Here's to refining my idea of Going Right in 2017. May God give you and me the strength to take every new day just one at a time, trusting fully in His PERFECT will for our lives, when He takes us through the hard places, and when He sees fit to give us times of joy.
Happy New Year!
......
Behold, I go forward but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him;
He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.
But He knows the way I take;
When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot has held fast to His path;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
I have not departed from the command of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.
Job 23:8-12
