"God calls us to make the transition from being those who have been rescued from the world to those through whom God is literally rescuing the world. God is yearning to rescue you from triviality and fear by making you a part of His powerful struggle for justice in the world.”
-Gary Haugen “Just Courage"
The winter of discontent has loomed heavy over my heart. The weight of sorrow, mixed with joy has been incredibly difficult to reconcile.
How can such joy abide and yet elsewhere, so much pain? How can I offer peace to students who suffer the horror of abuse? How do I comfort the dozens of friends who have lost their loved ones? How do I console the anxious, the weary, the depressed, when I am often unable to lift up my own eyes? How can I find rest at the feet of Jesus when the confines of my schedule and good things- relationships, ministry, work- seem pitted against me?
And outside my corner of the world, I’ve seen more darkness and hatred than I ever thought possible in the hearts of a people God created, loves, and pursues. We are living at a cataclysmic time. I have no new voice to bring to these matters, but my heart mourns, the way I believe God’s people should mourn and cry out against injustice. I have wept over the plight of our nation and our world, wondering what hope and comfort my empty hands can bring.
Violence. Division. Unspeakable Hatred. Anger. Corruption.
The world has been shaken in the last few months…and the longing of creation for the revelation of Jesus Christ grows louder to my ears day by day.
Yet though I remain wrapped in the obscurity of small town America and insulated by the comforts of day to day routine- I am more unshakeably certain of the all encompassing sovereignty and the perfectly righteous, beautiful character of God than I was in the 28 years past.
THAT GOD IS NOT PACING AROUND HIS THRONE ROOM, WONDERING WHAT HE WILL DO ABOUT THESE HORRIBLE THINGS. HE ALONE CHANGES TIMES AND SEASONS, SETS UP KINGS AND REMOVES THEM. HE CAUSES THE RAIN TO FALL ON THE JUST AND THE UNJUST. All that the enemy means for evil, He turns for our good and for his glory. (Genesis 50:20) His glory is soon going to consume the earth like fire. I do not fear that day. I long for it.
THAT GOD IS NOT PACING AROUND HIS THRONE ROOM, WONDERING WHAT HE WILL DO ABOUT THESE HORRIBLE THINGS. HE ALONE CHANGES TIMES AND SEASONS, SETS UP KINGS AND REMOVES THEM. HE CAUSES THE RAIN TO FALL ON THE JUST AND THE UNJUST. All that the enemy means for evil, He turns for our good and for his glory. (Genesis 50:20) His glory is soon going to consume the earth like fire. I do not fear that day. I long for it.
This ruined world has ruined me for anything else but Him. I bear burdens too deep for a soul to bear, and I drag them to the foot of the cross and leave them there.
And I’m running back and forth from the cross to the mess, battle sword in hand, singing a song of freedom.
Freedom to the slave of sin.
Light to the one caught in darkness.
Belonging to the lonely and outcast.
Abundance to the hungry.
I will never stop fighting and singing this song of freedom.
I cannot stop, because, Jesus sings it louder over me.
I’m just an echo, A reflection. A simple image bearer.
What is good in me, all that is beautiful in what I say and do and think is simply meant to draw others to His beauty, His majesty, and His worth.
Gone, long dead is the woman who was addicted to her own glory and gain, I want to be a Christ obsessed fool, addicted to His worth and making Him famous forever. (John 3:30)
In these months of sorrow, I have seen Jesus looking out from behind the eyes of my brothers and sisters in Christ. When they serve me, it is Jesus caring for me. When we laugh, we worship the One who created humor. When we share the table, I see the Savior who asked us to remember how He was broken every time we break bread. When I forgive and seek reconciliation, I am reminded of how Jesus went through the most horrific evil to forgive and reconcile me. When I talk with a friend about what we see God doing, how we long for the rumblings of revival and revolution to explode into a roar of kingdom come to earth, I hear Jesus cheering us on.
My beloved friends, it is my deepest joy to live this life with you, to pursue the freedom and joy that is only found in Jesus alongside you. May we be a people obsessed with the eternal, preoccupied with the joy of life to come, dwelling with secure confidence in the tension of the already- not yet. May we be the loudest voices, echoing the fame and worth of Jesus in these last days, and may we see His kingdom come to earth.
Will you pray with me? Will you fight with me? Will you trust with me?
He is worth every second of the wait.
