2024-03-22 A Meditation on How Things Work

“7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:1-5 ESV)

A thaw can transcend all convenient notions of how things work; to stay near to our education, then, is to find that the suit fits, that the calling meshes, that the service beckons. Unwittingly focal at times, and obtaining our heart’s desire for some time and peace and space around here, we are all of us though scarcely believing it, prime for testimony, exhibited strengths and conscious weaknesses; in the Cross my weakness is another’s strength; our communal unafraid sore loss is to the greater Glory of God. Our weaker postures are transcendental, beckoning for Resurrection Reckoning. Our lives begin to meld around simple basic notions of a time past that was special, special because it was unguarded perhaps, or was a case of people just getting along; there is some truth to the belief that God meets people in wondrously provisional ways, providing and encouraging, even as some hunger for food and others for fellowship. All can know that His mercy begins right now and right here, in our failures to match up to a colleague or our allegedly dastardly so-called immoral or lazy produce. We produce, and we know the repercussions of a personal bout of conscientiousness are enough punishment for the crime. God strangely boosts the questionable spirit in our midst. God strangely forgives even before the change and amendment of life is complete, nay, before it is even set out upon.

Therefore the pivotal role is a role we can cope with provided our God is not denied, provided we are not supposed to “go it alone”, provided we have that Faith which says, God is for us, though the earth shatter and the heavens come crash-landing down upon us, we shall have this certainty and promissory note called Faith. It becomes rather a poor hobby to guess as to where others are flagging or falling short; our own conscience suffices to be gracious, to put aside all callings unto moralizing or works-righteousness; we are quicker to forgive than the devil is to mock; the devil mocks God’s children, with ineptitudes as perceived, with flagging as noted, with hamster-wheel mockeries. Yet in this we dare to extend Mercy such as the mercy we have received. In this we are hopeful and calm, recovering, discovering, reacquainting with a substratum benign and faithful, true and level, to Call on each of us to be ready for tomorrow’s pivotal role, such role as any proper testimony launches any of us into. We launch; we are emboldened to Pray; we take stock just of the bare necessities of life, if we be so blessed with Patience and with Fidelity. Fidelity to a lazy-man’s trauma or scare-factor: that God asks us to do things we genuinely enjoy doing, that we only half-way dwell in the outward work; half-way we live in a substratum mysterious and inexplicable. We dwell partly in some Peace and Joy in believing. We dwell, refusing even to know the dastardly mindset of a demon-possessed or inimical spirit. For, as we judge so too shall we be judged. So it is a call each hour to impute all Good Things unto each other, and to know our own labors shall cause us to bear a Cross, the Cross of taken-for-granted, of mocked labors, of belittled Peace. Yet Peace has been accomplished. Peace has been assigned and parceled out to the saints. Peace calls each of us to know the wide latitude for Progress and for Commiseration and for Fidelity to a Cause. We are together, no longer strangers, no longer mourning life’s dastardly effects.

Therefore give jumping and joyous praise to the One who provided for this day and this hour, peace, lack of self-denial or hatred, health and space to dwell in. Therefore we hear the preacher pontificate and we see words that wash over us, or words that enter into the heart and soul. Some words equip. Some words leave us edified. Some words have some unknown quality that becomes our education in those latter days. Our go-to explanatory devices. Our familiar tropes. A movie, a friend’s conversation, strange what we remember and what we forget. But in all things we are being prepared for a Future Estate called Resurrection and Salvation, Continuity and Progress. We shall be on that good ship when it sets sail. And we also shall know Today’s peace as sufficient reward even, perhaps, though awaiting a day when pain shall be no more, when belovedness shall make us to Rise Up, when warm tidings shall wash over all hemmed up or hedged out fear zones. All good things shall work together for some brand of Peace and Sanctification. Our trend towards holiness shall be undoubted. Our owned deeds shall be Righteous and Beneficent. Our prayers shall be so much love language and childlike passing of the bauble back and forth with a friend or partner, or so much responsible duty met, appreciated Service, righteous Envelopment with Good Things as found and as gifted to others, for we do not hoard but rather in an overabundance of Good Tidings we bless all whom we encounter. Our Cross is another’s blessing, our vulnerability their reassurance, our duty-bound labors a patient progress unto mastery, of self, of communal living, of prayerful waking hours and peaceful sleeping certainty: we are those forgiven and those beloved.