Always Something

"Its always something." "When it rains it pours."  "Murphy's law."   These are just a few of the phrases we use to sum up what life is like in this life.

And yet, the Bible says, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose."  "For nothing is impossible with God." "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

And right there between the circumstances of life and the promises of the Bible is the tension Jesus says we are called to shine for him in.  It is the tension between the now and the not yet.  Jesus death and resurrection has already defeated hell and is yet defeating hell.  Jesus has already made all wrongs right and yet is in the process of fulfilling all wrongs being made right. 

In the past two years I have been learning to live (and I am still learning) in this tension between the now and not yet. Here are a few examples:

• Jesus said in the church you will have wheat (genuine Followers of Christ) and weeds (Those looking for what they can get from the Church, but not interested in giving to the Church, let alone interested in growing in Christ).  Jesus said that we must resist the temptation to pull the weeds.  Interesting.  Why would we want weeds among the wheat?  Jesus must know what we don't. Even the weeds serves a purpose.  It is not that God wants weeds or that he planted them, but that God can and will use all things to bring about good for his glory. In the past two years, Jesus has really been challenging me to accept the tension that even at LH there will always be both wheat and weeds.  This is not a personal reflection on me or anyone else, but the reality of what it means to live in this time of the now and not yet.
• Jesus said Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy, but that He has come to give life and life abundant. God allows evil choices to be made that bring death, loss and destruction into our lives and world--even into the lives of good people trying to do the right thing.  However, Jesus promises life not just in the absence of evil, but even in the presence of evil.  One day he will remove evil once and for all.  But for now, he invites us to receive life from him that is independent of the circumstances evil's effect brings into our lives.
• Jesus said blessed are you when you are persecuted for my name's sake.  What a strange blessing?  I am tempted to say, "No thanks, Lord, I will let you bless someone else with persecution, I'll take whatever else you got."  But Jesus is helping us to accept the tension of the now and not yet in that beatitude.  In this world, before his return, even doing the right thing with the right intentions, speaking the truth in love, giving to others, being real, transformed, connected and poured out will not always be met with open arms.  Christ's way of living and loving is counter cultural.  His light reveals the darkness and those living the dark don't always want to see.  In fact, the light even hurts their eyes.  And so Jesus is letting you know that attack and ridicule does not mean you are doing something wrong, it means you're right on track.  So, be blessed with that assurance!

I am not saying it is easy to accept the tension between the now and the not yet.  But what I am saying is that when we understand it for what it is, while it may not make anything easier, it does make a whole lot more sense of things.  And, at least for me, when things make a little more sense, they really do in some way make things a little more meaningful and even a little easier to swallow.  So, thank God for what he has done and thank him that he is not done yet because, "Its always something!"