Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. (Phil 2.5 KJV)Good morning self. Good morning God. It's been a strange journey - if I may use the word strange. It's hard to put it any other word. The standard church phraseology would be "It's been a good journey, praise God."
But I think I'm churched out; I'm pretty tired of me, too. To be clear, I'm tired of the false expectations that I put on myself and my church, and that church sometimes puts upon me; but I love God and His people and we have much growing to do together. I'm at a different place, a new place in my walk. It's hard to put directly into words. It's like looking into a cave and knowing what's in there. But the only way you're going to know what's in the cave is to search it out, to explore, to dig deep.
It's in the exploration - of ourselves, of others - that we make ourselves known, that we become known. A number of people know of me. There are very few that know me. While I know me, I barely know myself.
You're speaking in riddles, Mike, you're going in circles. Well, Yes, and No. Too many times, my life - our life - feels like it's going in circles.
The old saints used to say each round goes higher. It gets me to thinking. From God's perspective, are we going around in circles, or is He continuing to draw us higher, closer to Him? From a different perspective, that circle could be a spiral.
The Spiral of Grace
As we move along the spiral, we travel up in altitude. From one perspective, travelling in circles, from another, travelling while moving up or down. Good theory, right? Let's check it out.We think that the earth is simply moving in an orbit around the sun. But the sun itself is moving, and so it's never in the same place. No matter how familiar the seasons look, we are spiraling along, moving further and further in our God-ordained destiny towards the promises that He has for us.
As often happens, the Children of Israel are very instructive for our own lives. We often relate to the children of Israel as just going in circles over the space of 40 years. I mean, yes, there's a lot of wilderness, but even walking slowly, one can cover a lot of ground in 40 years. And this was their punishment for their lack of faith, right?
But what happened over the 40 years?
During the time they were travelling around, they watched their children grow up, knowing that they wouldn't be able to enter into the Promised Land. Day after day, week after week, year after year they told their children of the exploits which led them to this state of affairs. And during they were fed with manna. Their shoes didn't run down. Their clothes didn't wear out. They were constantly reminded of the faithfulness of God, even in their unfavorable condition.
And then, they died.
Hundreds of thousands of people died over that forty year span of time. The faithless ones, the covenant breakers, those who failed to believe in the power of their God - which they had actually witnessed coming out of Egypt. But their hearts had been divided because they couldn't let Egypt go in their hearts. So God had to let Egypt die from among them. They had to let go and leave Egypt in order to trust God enough to let Him lead them to the Promised Land.
Each time they came back around to a familiar landmark, some would groan in despair. But many would nod in understanding and even contentment. As they grew older, and closer to the inevitable, watching their friends and family pass away because of their faithlessness, they did something remarkable. They passed the faith on to their children. Moses continued to speak and their testimonies became such that the children understood that God was a Great God who would keep his promises, all of them.
Every Round Went Higher
Each round bought them closer to the Promised Land, once again. The faith of the children, now adults, was growing. It had to. Had they remained at the same level of faith as their parents, they would not have entered in.
Even in what appears as our wandering, God is doing something in us because He is Faithful. He allows us to go through seasons and cycles in our lives to allow things to die in us, and as He does so, the weights and the sin that's so attractive to us fall off - or we throw them away, far away. So every round takes us higher. We often can't see it, but this is the necessity and the power of testimony. Testimony allows us to step back and see the vertical path of the spiral. It allows us to see that every round goes higher.
The journey is not overnight. Be content and be at peace,
[For] I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you. (Phil 1.6 AMPC)Let go and let God; every round goes higher. Welcome to the Intro article to the Path to Peace, a 5 article treatise on coming to a place of true peace.
Previously published May 4, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment