2023-08-02 A Meditation on Change

“4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. 7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Pe 4:4–11 ESV)

Coached through a change, presenting factors that spell reboot also do pose a question: are we grounded in Christ? Punctuated by a “Hallelujah!” or other somehow proofs that we are of a converted heart, we seek and we find evidential proof too of courage for the journey. For the change. For the onslaught and presenting factors. For the hastening unto spiritual testing and war.

We are therefore to walk by faith not by sight, “this much is sufficient for thee”. On some level we are all of us Jonahs, made into a laughing matter because of our doubts and escape-artist attempts. We are all of us to return to the good word, the verses, the plain insistence that our troubles are both worse than we reckon, and of lighter impact in light of the Christ who as a strong-man-made-weak on His Cross, cared. Cared that we evolve out of the negating depressive spirits. Cared that we evolve out of the tolerance for crime, making His cohort into a leading Cause, a moral Reality, a bounty of souls for whom what was lost and freely given up, is no match for what is gained: eternal life, certainty, joy, peace on our dying day.

Help us, then, O Spirit, to accept the things freely given unto us. Thus we pray, and thus we Encounter and Embrace the doctrine, if only patience and calm outlook would take us to phase two of the engagement, to spelling out some of the fruits and factors of His embrace. No matter! For the things of Salvation work themselves out! We are saved, and thus embrace comical and unashamed Encounter. We encounter, and we make the solemn vows or testimonies: “Such-and-such saved me!”; “Jesus lives!”; “God is on my side!”.

So, too, the patience to see what fruits are borne through time and prayer. An initial outlay may stick with us, informing and shaping our better angels alongside our inner demons. Those demons were for some punctuated, ended, by that divine Hallelujah, and for others through similar trust-fall, embarrassingly beautiful faith expression, the soldier’s existential bounty: “For this I signed up”; “In this reckoning I find my peace”; “See to it that the Lord is not forgotten”.