Good morning…
In the midst of my prayer time, God is growing in me a fresh thought, a new-to-me idea, the spark of the small, simple diagram pictured above. I am certain that this line of thinking has been explored by other curious brains, as Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 (CEV) reminds us: Everything that happens has happened before; nothing is new, nothing under the sun. Someone might say, “Here is something new!” But it happened before, long before we were born. The difference for us right now is that, first, the garden of our collective mind has been cultivated to receive these soulful seeds as if they were new, fresh, personal, and, second, when seeds of wisdom come to us from our quiet time with the LORD, the truth sinks in deep as we have been made ready to live more fully into God’s firsthand revelation.
On the sixth day of January, 2020 we as an online community are ready to accept more fully this truth: Short-term benefit carries with it long-term costs. Read that with me again. Short-term benefit carries with it long-term costs.
If we stay in our up and down, top to bottom thinking, we remain within the logical line, the unconscious column, the labor-some lane of our hurtful human nature. Think: unconscious scarfing of junk food (short-term benefit) leads to a groggy, overweight body (long-term cost). Think: drinking often and excessively (short-term benefit) leads to alcohol addiction (long-term cost). Think pleasure-seeking infidelity (short-term benefit) leads to broken relationship with God, whole self, and our loved ones (long-term cost).
I sense God drawing us to consider “living on the slant.” As we know in our soul the truth of Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV): “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Too often our immediate human impulse get us stuck in a reckless rut. We see it, we want it. We feel it, we say it. We crave, we grab it. This is the fast lane of the highway of deadly desire. God’s higher way lives on the slant.
“Living on slant” in the diagram above would mean this. We begin focused our attention upon key short-term costs which will carry us to God’s long-term benefits. Said on a different slant, the long-term benefits we most deeply desire begin by committing with God to short-term costs. Think: an ability to resist the numbing temptation of excessive alcohol (short-term cost) leads to calm and clear thinking as we wake to another day of decision making (long-term benefit). Think: saying “no” to the ever-present pressure to please, to perform, and to perfect ourselves to the liking of others (short-term cost) leads to having more breathing room for our best self to grow up (long-term benefit). Think: quietly carrying with God the invisible beams of our heavy daily cross, like Jesus being empowered by God’s Spirit to die to his earthly life, (short-term cost) leads to living freely in union with our caring Creator, abundantly, forever (long-term benefit). I think the slant leads to God’s higher thinking, inviting us on the back roads to God’s higher ways.
Over time, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we are invited to live into verses 10-13 of Isaiah 55. “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”
May today’s fresh word from above accomplish what our LORD desires and achieve the purpose for which it was sent. As I see it right now, the beautiful benefits of “living on God’s slant” are many.
1) God’s word waters our inner soil, making new gifts bud and flourish.
2) We receive life-giving seeds as a sower, our ordinary lives eventually yielding daily bread for all who are hungry.
3) We go out in joy.
4) We are led forth in peace.
5) We join the celebration with all of creation applauding the powerful purposes of our Almighty God.
6) Instead of the thorn bushes and briers overrun by our human nature, symbolically our lives flourish freely with juniper and myrtle grown by God.
7) Our fruitful lives blossom for the LORD’s renown as our inner garden grows as an everlasting sign of God’s living presence with us imperfect people.
Don’t you sense the deep, soulful invitation of “living on God’s slant,” short-term cost carrying long-term benefits, long-term benefit born from our commitment to short-term costs? In our everyday lives, we are invited to become the enduring presence of our living LORD, a unique gift to the world benefits will bear God’s fruit forever.
…Sue…
