Winds of Change, Wings of Grace

Sometimes, it feels like life never changes. But that's just surface appearances. It's the little things that add up, and all the sudden break out in change. That's why the small stuff is so very important. And in this life, things must change. Like C.S. Lewis said,  

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

It can be hard though. Whatever stage we are in, we can feel too comfortable with where we're at, instead of pressing further out into the deeps of God's promises. We curl up in our shells and feel that life is going just fine. But God in His infinite wisdom, holiness, and love, wants so much more for us than personal peace, a sense of morality, a bit of pocket-change, and our cozy self-deception of being able to "handle" it all. He wants our hearts wholly, and He wants them holy. So He cracks our shells.

I had a feeling this past year was going to be different. Looking back now from the cool vantage point of late fall, Thanksgiving season, the main theme that has arisen is change, and the truth that in this life nothing ever stays the same. Except one thing. Okay, two things.

First, my fragile little heart is always in motion. Always floating, drifting, being tossed about in the waves of life. Second and most important, my great God and Savior Jesus Christ never changes. He is always the same, yesterday, today, and for all the unknowns. He remains steadfast and sure, an anchor for the soul.

by N.C. Wyeth

Take courage from the example of the Pilgrims. They left cozy England, climbed into small wooden ships, and embarked upon a perilous journey across a great deep into a greater unknown. They faced unrelenting hardships in the New World. They could have stayed "safe" in England, if they would give up their freedom to worship God. But they knew the only truly safe place was found in casting themselves on the promises of the Lord. So they chose a holy adventure and a hard pursuit of the Kingdom of God. In the words of William Bradford,"They committed themselves to the will of God, and resolved to proceed." The Lord wanted their obedience, even in the teeth of trials, that would light a beacon of faith for future generations. He proved to be their courage and strength in weakness. They persevered bravely, and gave thanks. Their world was shaken, so that what was unshakeable could remain.

"All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.   ― William Bradford, Pilgrim 

This year, different things have been shaken in our world, and in small ways just in my own life. And it has been uncomfortable. But...it has been good. Because He is shaking things that I tend to put my trust and identity in, even good things, so that what cannot be shaken can remain: Christ Himself, His finished work, His victory and power, His Kingdom, and His great love for His children, for me, in spite of me.

Consider this. It doesn't get more dire and hopeless than Ephesians 2:1-3: "And you were dead in trespasses and sins...sons of disobedience...by nature children of wrath." But then in verse 4 come the most glorious two words in the history of mankind: "But God." And everything changed. The grand thing is, when we get out of our little shells, when we leave the harbor, no matter what comes, we aren't left to ourselves. God promises to be with us. It doesn't get more hopeful than that!


Earlier in the summer, I went to put up the chickens one warm, soft evening. In the dim, musty barn was a seemingly ordinary, mundane scene. Our little red hen had hatched babies, and she lay on the ground in the corner of the coop (since the chicks couldn't roost yet) with her little ones nestled under her heart, safe.

And what struck me with so much weight and reality is this: that's how the Lord of the universe describes Himself and His tender care of His children! Astounding, isn't it? As I stood in the dirty coop, my eyes welled up as that truth soaked in:

He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge.  ― Psalm 91:3

Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.  ― Psalm 63:7

We can't know the incredible closeness our Heavenly Father wants with us when we have various shells separating us from seeing Him clearly. We get too comfortable in our dangerous English harbors. But praise HIM, He gives us courage to break through, embark on the voyage that we were made for, and He keeps watch over us. He is infinitely worthy of our trust.

"Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God."  ― John Stott

“Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”   ― Victor Hugo

In this grand adventure of life, we have steadfast promises made by our unchanging Lord Jesus Christ that He has saved us by His grace (Eph. 2:8), delivered us from darkness, forgiven our sins, placed us in His Kingdom (Col.1:13-14), pronounced us righteous in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21), adopted us as His children (Rom. 8:15), nothing can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:37-39), He has overcome the world (John 16:33), He has defeated the enemy (Col. 2:15), He has broken our bondage to sin (Rom. 6:12-23), He will be with us always (Matt. 28:20), and He will finish the work He's begun in us (Phil. 1:6), even now He Himself works in us to will and do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13), and He will help us break free from all the shells we find ourselves in (Heb. 4:14-16). He will lead us on as our Captain (Heb. 2:10), and be our Anchor (Heb. 6:17-20) in the winds of change.

So what are we afraid of anyway? By HIS grace, I want to know Him better, see Christ more clearly, venture wholly out into His promises, and whatever it takes, be changed more and more into His image.

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

So let's press on, hidden in Christ and looking to Him. Fearless.



Happy Thanksgiving!
-ak

God was in the Manger

Recently we read these quotes (below) from "God is in the Manger", a compilation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Advent Christmas writings. But thanks be to God! Jesus Christ did not stay in the manger. He has been from the manger to the cross, and has risen victorious to the right hand of the Father, and the knowledge of His Lordship will fill the earth far as the curse is found, and His unshakable Kingdom shall have no end. Christmas is a promise fulfilled, and we can be sure that all His other exceedingly great promises will be faithfully kept as well.

While we live in between the Already and the Not Yet, pain is real. But we find comfort that His pain was real too. In all our trials, He was born to be our Friend. Behold our King in a lowly manger! In His name all things will be set right one day, the path to misery will be closed for good, and tears will be wiped away. In our lives, we will be troubled, but fear not, for He has overcome the world. So we can sing, even in a minor key, "Rejoice."


This letter from an imprisoned Bonhoeffer to his fiancee is achingly beautiful, and something to ponder often during Advent and beyond.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Be brave, my dearest Maria, even if this letter is your only token of my love this Christmas-tide. We shall both experience a few dark hours -- why should we disguise that from each other? We shall ponder the incomprehensibility of our lot and be assailed by the question of why, over and above the darkness already enshrouding humanity. We are being subjected to the bitter anguish of a separation whose purpose we fail to understand. And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives."

-ak

Finding Brave Hearts

Life is risky sometimes. It's an uphill battle against the come-easy things, like selfishness, and faint hearts. It's a battle against Self. And the sword gets heavy. I look down at my weak hands, feel my feeble heartbeat. I doubt my ability to be brave and faithful, to completely die to self when things don't go my way. It's daunting when pride and self-love choke, fear of what others think creeps in, hearts ache and circumstances threaten to drown; when having a brave heart is hard, and being a coward is so...easy. It's much easier to put down the sword and give in.

But there is the problem: That is not life, according to Life Himself. And He calls us to life.

"I have come that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly."

-John 10:10

Abundant life. And that means swimming upstream. As G.K. Chesterton put it:

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

It's easy to go with the flow. To just do what comes naturally since the Fall. To buy the world's "wisdom." To be discontent. Proud. Jealous. Fearful. Despairing. Rebellious. Exploitative. In other words, to live for self. I don't know about you, but no one had to teach me how to be selfish. It comes easy.

But the truth is...to live for yourself is the easy way.

It's cowardly.

It takes a brave heart to go against the flow. To be selfless.

Nothing is more difficult than to forsake all carnal thoughts, to subdue and renounce our false appetites, and to devote ourselves to God and our brethren, and to live the life of angels in a world of corruption.

-John Calvin

But it can be done. Just not alone.

[The Lord] wants those who belong to Him to be brave and fearless. He shows us Himself how weakness of the flesh is overcome by courage of the Spirit. This is the testimony of the apostles and in particular of the representative administrating Spirit. A Christian is fearless. (Emphasis mine)

-Tertullian

Think of the people you most admire and respect. They probably aren't very selfish. The strongest women I know are the most submissive and selfless. They are no doormats; they are lionesses, princesses in invisible tiaras. The strongest men I know are the most gentle and servant-hearted. They are no wimps; they are warriors and kings. The bravest knight has the softest heart.

painting by N.C. Wyeth

They follow the True King, Jesus Christ, Who came to serve and not be served. They pour their lives out for the weak and despised, the widows and fatherless, the disabled, poor and needy, for their families and communities, for the Kingdom of Christ. And they find their life abundantly. They fight for victory against The World, The Flesh and The Devil. These are true heroes. They are brave and strong...precisely because they know they aren't.

What?

“Welcome, Prince,” said Aslan. “Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingship of Narnia?”

“I - I don't think I do, Sir,” said Caspian. “I'm only a kid.”

“Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not…”

Prince Caspian – Ch. 15

They are weak. But He is strong. I'm not strong enough or brave enough to fight the good fight...alone. "But thanks be to God Who always leads us in triumph in Christ!" (2 Cor. 2:14) God gives His children His own brave heart through His Spirit. Like Caspian looking into the eyes of the Lion, doubt your ability, and trust His instead. He is strong enough to enable us, weak and unfit as we are, to do brave things for His Kingdom. Not alone.

We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving of ourselves because we were made to do these things. It is when we live like this that the Spirit of God moves and acts in and through us in ways that on our own we are not capable of. This is our purpose. This is our hope. (Emphasis mine)

-Francis Chan in "Forgotten God"

I continually need a brave heart, to know my insufficiency and His all-sufficiency, to be emptied of me and filled with the fullness of Him who fills all in all, to die to self and find Life abundant. It's an uphill battle, but victory at the top will be worth it. Broken hearts will be bound up, and battle wounds will be healed. The brave know, and they press on for the joy set before them. Not alone.

Do you need a brave heart too? Keep your eyes on Him alone - He is the one with the Brave Heart, who's name is Faithful, and it's only from Him you will find a brave heart.

"You have listened to fears, Child,” said Aslan. “Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?"

Prince Caspian - Ch. 11 : The Lion Roars

Listen to His heartbeat and take heart.

-audrey