Good morning…
Her email was short and direct. “Sue, what is happening around us? What do we do? Is God listening? Afraid for our world.”
My response was long and drawn out. “Great questions. I am learning not to just slough off important opportunities to communicate. You are asking so I will answer and these are my prayerful responses.”
1) What is happening around us? Because of technology (cell phones, body cameras, televisions) we are seeing with our own eyes the deep needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, people of variety we might never meet otherwise. To watch one person stop the breath of another and to see a frightened officer take control by taking a life, to see peaceful protesters and violent rioters flood our street and to watch the Coronavirus death toll go up and up, these visuals touch our hearts and beg a response. We are more keenly aware of the life-altering power bestowed on human beings. By our choices, we have the capacity to enhance or to extinguish earthly life. I truly sense that we are in a time of great spiritual awakening. If we rely on our human nature stoked by fear, greed, and manmade power, we will hurt, divide, and destroy. At the core of our being, we need to see our need to surrender our human ways to God’s higher ways. We cannot change others, we can only pray honestly, “God, change me. Help me be part of Your healing solution.”
2) What do we do? God’s ways are higher and we need to surrender our daily lives, morning by morning, to the guidance of our powerfully present God, the One God who is in the process of making everything new. As we plant ourselves deeply in the soil of God’s ever-presence, the fruits of God’s Spirit will organically grow in our ordinary lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Like grapes these fruits grow in a cluster, so as we remain closely connected to our Creator, we will see all of these spiritual gifts ripening in our lives. Over time, we will sense these characteristics of Christ expanding from our tenderized heart.
3) Is God listening? Even Jesus felt like God has abandoned him to the unjust, inhumane treatment of the people in power as he hung in anguish on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But we know God was listening to His suffering son, and at the same time God was choosing to bring about His higher will for all eternity. God was atoning for every selfish thought, word, and deed, past, present, and future, inflicted knowingly or unknowingly by each one of us. Our sins, mine, yours, every friend and every enemy, our sins, all of them, have been all paid in full by the sacrificial love of Christ. So we are invited to live as free people, all of us, fully forgiven, because of the grace set in motion by Jesus Christ. I sense that God is listening attentively to our present pain and at the same time is choosing His eternal will over our short term desire for peace, comfort, and ease.
4) Afraid for our world. I actually was more afraid for our world when we were asleep in a divisive, unconscious, inequitable status quo. I think we have left the shore of our old comfort zones, all of us, and we are consciously seeking more creative, collaborative ways to become intricately involved in God’s eternal plan to redeem all of creation. God will welcome us back home to heaven, but until then, heaven on earth is taking form around us, right before our very eyes. But this is God’s plan, brought about by God’s ways in God’s time, and we, thankfully, are just humble witnesses to this great thing God is doing within and among us.
“What do these thoughts stir in you?” I ended my email.
“Everything that I needed to hear Sue,” she replied. “Thank you for this response; I’m going to print it and put it on the refrigerator. But you are so right, life as we knew it will never be the same. I believe it is God’s way of saying it’s time to start anew. I believe this would be a good post for you tomorrow as I think it addresses so many of our concerns. You mean the world to me and all of us. And thank you dear friend.”
“I love you too,” I replied. “We are in this together and I am grateful to be planted right beside you in God’s growing garden.”
“Sue a footnote” she wrote back. “Just finished my walk and reflected on what you said in your email. I know my prayer life has been replaced by distractions and I’ve got to tell you, what you wrote back earlier is the closest direct contact I have felt with Christ since March. You are so precious to me. You took my awakening anxiety away. I so needed to hear everything you said and I appreciate it. No need to respond just wanted to share this.?”
“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” (Isaiah 55:8-10, NIV).
..Sue…
P.S. Free photo provided by Unsplash.com.
