2023-04-14 A Meditation on Being About It
“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” (Heb 11:32–34 ESV)
A Man, a myth, a legend, there was something peculiar about the One from Nazareth. Each of us entertains illusions of an evenhanded thought process, but in truth all thought is prime for conversion. This is the outcome of the sole voice that came down to us and proclaims peace for the captives, strength for the journey, Resurrection newness of thought and of finding our own roles in that thought.
The call, therefore, to have thoughts baptized into that newness, is a call to take sacrificial offerings and allow them each to be redeemed. We sacrifice our pride and our attainments, in hope and in trust that something deeper, richer, more sagacious, will bless us this hour.
One voice, could come from anywhere, has wealth and capacity to rewrite history. Each of us can attain to that level, where our thought is blessedly relevant and capable, new for the task, rich for the provision, converted for the game. Each of us is looked unto, when for once we begin to self-provide. When once we begin to cope with life, others are drawn like a magnet. When once we begin to know our beginnings and our endings, others adopt the same game. When our rhyme and rhythm of things is amenable, lovable, likable, then it suddenly matters who we work for: for we have many guides but few fathers or mothers (1 Co 4:15) in Christ.
Who we work for is today a reflection on Sonship and Daughtership, to be banked on, relied upon, to make the sagacious foray, to take matters up responsibly, to do things in certainty that our hearts have been encountered and thereby converted. We are certain, and have these treasures in jars of clay, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Co 4:7).
And then never tiring to draw nigh unto distinctions between Law and Gospel. Our selves servant-now, converted, having brought the sacrificial gifts, reckon now with a high thought. It is a noble thought and a worthy thought: how, in this—or in any—circumstance, can I make Gospel the main thing. Not setting standards and expectations, but rather to know these standards and expectations have already been preached to the heart by errant and devilish voices. No, the heart will unburden itself, will open up, will adopt today’s program of plain-spoken peace.
Not tired of this message, we soldier on for He has banked on us to be His people in this wild and scary, broad world. He has listened and made the single gesture: “He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”” (Lk 16:31). We live into Sonship and Daughtership because of the surpassing worth of a multi-gazillion dollar outlay: God is gifting us with eternal potential. God is accelerating our thought processes and sanctioning our private meditations. God is remaking us in ways of pure gift, not of deservings, but in ways that reckon with us as those rhymers and poets and thinkers and servants, soldiers and corporals, people who Believe. For, cynically we can come down a few notches because of unbelief, but trust me God can handle our doubts, emerging hurt but still in charge. We believe, because He has made the program ours to own, to walk into, to be about it.