[Hyacinths, 2013, JA Van Devender]
(Luk 12:27 NKJ) " "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
Lilies? Hyacinths? Pretty flowers? Perhaps we can agree on that.
Sometimes I just have to get my mind right. Yesterday's post was reflective of a recurring pessimism that can sometimes so occupy my mind that it even shows up in my actions.
People have, on occasion, even accused me of being grumpy. Imagine that.
It's easy to fall into that trap. We Christians, those of us who take sin seriously for example, can become so preoccupied with our lack of progress in sanctification, the frequency of our lapses, the manner in which new tempations grab us, etc. that we can despair even of God's love for us. We are also prone to thinking that the depravity in the world is so far gone that God has either completely abandoned us to it or else that perhaps He is not all that powerful, or good, after all. Too much news can do that.
It's in times like those that a healthy dose of the Resurrection is in order.
It was the amazing fact of Jesus' resurrection that fired the evangelistic passion of the apostles and the early church. Paul said that he was determined to not know anything among the Corinthians but "Jesus Christ and Him Crucified!" The tense of "Crucified" in the original language shifts the emphasis from the specific act of the cross itself to the fact that Jesus, alive, is the one who was crucified. It is His triumph over death and the cross and His present, living, ruling estate which was the focus of Paul's fervor.
This living Jesus is the Lord who went to the cross for us... that is His qualification for His current office... that is the instrument through which He was elevated to authority... that has been done... it's over... He is now installed at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and all power in heaven and on earth are given into His hands. This is what Paul resolved to "know" and to "know exclusively" and to embrace as the controlling reality of his own life.
How can we serve someone who has raised from the dead and be despairing over anything? Is there any mountain which cannot be removed to the sea if we have faith even as the grain of a mustard seed? Is there any work that is beyond our reach if this same Jesus who calmed the storm and healed the sick and raised the dead, himself said that we would do works even greater than His?
Why, O my heart, should you be downcast? Why are you anxious? What is it in the world than can bring an obstacle so great that the armies of our Great King cannot tear them down?
This world and it's terror, heart-ache, violence, greed and depravity gives the illusion of permanence but that is a lie spoken by the father of lies. Already the Word and His Gospel is bringing light into the darkness and though the darkness does not receive it yet it cannot be extinguished.
There is hope for Baltimore. There is hope for my neighborhood... for my church (Praise God for them all)... for my family (ditto)... for those with whom I correspond.
Sometimes I have to force myself to remember that the Gospel is good news... it should be embraced with joy... and it should be lived in hope.
Consider the lilies of the field. If God provides for them will He not in due time provide for His people... all that they need... and in abundant measure... so that they may be thoroughly equipped and able to do His good will.
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