For the second time this week, I’m plugging in a couple of family photographs to go with my morning words. As I’ve watched the deep drama of so many events play out all week long, often extremely close to home, and as I’ve read scriptures in my morning devotional times, I can’t get these images out of my mind.
Just a couple of days ago one good friend announced – with great joy – that his first grandchild had been born; just a few hours later another good friend was devastated by the news that his five-year-old granddaughter had died. Both men are members of my small group. That same day, the mother of one of our preschool children gave a kidney to her two-year-old (they are both doing well). The next day, in Pensacola, one of Andrew and Naomi’s childhood friends died suddenly, he was 30 years old.
The events of life are sometimes overwhelming; but even when tragedy seems to predominate – both on the world stage and closer to home – we still refer to our experience as “life.” This is because life is irrepressible, and because “life” is a larger concept than the mere span of years we experience here on earth.
I like the way Rebekah often phrases the idea during funerals and memorial services at our church, “Life as we experience it is not enough to explain life.” And, “We were created for eternity.”
NEW LIFE: I think it is actually very beautiful that birth so often comes along in the same moment as tragedy and grief. Both experiences are passages, book-ends of our span of time here in this particular element of time and space.
That’s why our anchoring in the firm permanence of God’s unchanging faithfulness is such a critical fixed point in the way we navigate life. People live and die; governments and institutions are absorbed into the passage of time; civilizations rise and crumble; continents shift with the Earth’s crust; stars collide; galaxies disappear into the void…
…Yet God exists, not outside but beyond the limitations of time, and space, and imagination, and expectation. I find tremendous comfort and confidence in the knowledge of such definitive stability, in a world that is always just a heartbeat or two away from another crisis.
The bottom line here is not just that I know where I stand, but that I stand with Jesus, the foundation and the fruition of God’s unswerving Covenant of Love.
The bottom line here is not just that I know where I stand, but that I stand with Jesus, the foundation and the fruition of God’s unswerving Covenant of Love.
WHAT’S NEXT? Over the next few days (and weeks, and years), each one of us is going to be witness to the marvelous unpredictability that is life.
There will be births (Rebekah Mae, to Naomi and Craig), weddings (Andrew and Alicia), and also things we can’t even imagine. Change is a constant, it’s part of who we are. That’s another reason why, in my understanding of how this constant dance of life works, fixing my anchor in the solid rock of God’s unwavering love in Jesus feeds my soul. Outside of that fixed point of pure light, there is no navigation that makes any sense.
– DEREK
I think the mystery of life preceeds religion…that power of life trancends religion…and religion was created by man to try to man explain things that were just unknowable in those dark days of the infancy of man-kind.
When you remove the god factor – from this “every changing world in which we live in” (Paul McCartney)things really do begin to make sense in the seemingly randomess of it all. In that it really is random after all.
Tim, are you an atheist, or agnostic, or none of the above. I’m confused. And Derek, speaking of good and bad going on at the same time, did you have any interest in the Gosnell case? It was tragic. There really wasn’t a lot of press on that one. AND… Have a good time with your parents. G
Gary – I followed as much of the case as I could stomach. Tragic on so many levels.
I think religion is a man made thing, yes I do.
Man has been making gods in his own image – not the other way around. Any anthropological study of religion and religious symbols will confirm that.
Mind you a CRITICAL studies not a devotional one. That is the key difference. You have to get over the whole idea of accepting on faith things that simply cannot happen: walking on water, bringing dead back to life…virgin birth.
Like or not…believing things that are not true is not virtuous.
Let me phrase a quote from Socrates to his prosecutors when he was on trial for heresy:
“I do not know for certain about death and the gods. But I am quite certain that you cannot know either.”
An interesting hypocrisy of religion that religious folk will invite you to church while saying, “Keep an open mind.”
But the opposite is not true…You cannot say to a Christian…”look, read this book…it deals with a theory that religion is the underlying cause of most of human indecency.”
NONONO cries the Christian…That book is evil!
Well, no it isn’t…for certain it isn’t as evil as the history of the Christian church and her capitulation to fascism and NAZI-ism.
Dietrich Bonheoffer excluded.
Just a quick comment:
(BTW, Bonheoffer rocks!). I believe revelation is God reaching into time and space, and that (Tim is right) religion is one way people have tried to process God’s initiative. But… Jesus is where revelation and our making sense of God come together. Jesus is God reaching in to time and space; Christianity is the best we can do with it… Imperfect brief thoughts…
Thanks, Derek…this is my new favorite. Dave T.
Thanks, Dave
I have to agree with David T. Thank you (again!) Derek!! I needed to read your words, AND see the beautiful pictures of love and hope! 🙂 Thanks!
Tim,
I am definitely one who fought those same beliefs most of my life. I liked this, and I didn’t like that. I always questioned the bible. Jesus references Adam and eve, Noah, and other old testament stories, so I no longer question them Either its true, or a total fabrication. I get it that some think its bunk, and i respect that. What I dont respect is the kind of Christian I used to be. A pick and choose person. Yes, Jesus was born to a virgin. Silly as it may seem, I 100% believe it. G