I love today's reading. This is one of those passages in the bible that speaks into the darkest place of my heart. That place where I feel inadequate to handle what is coming at me. That part of me that feels like I can't go another day. That part of me that wants to give up the fight. If it bothers you that one of your pastors has that place in his heart, then you might want to stop reading now and move to another blog where a pastor doesn't.
For someone like me, the preceding verses about how God knows everything about us could be a little intimidating, considering the things I think in that place. What keeps it from being intimidated is right at the beginning of today's reading. "With God on our side..." No matter my failures, my insecurities, my own dysfunctional self, God is still on my side. He's in my corner. He has my back. And no matter who or what stands up against me, he can kick their...yeah that's right, he can! Nothing can come between his love for me and my lack of love for him. Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. Do you hear that?
This carries some incredible weight in my life for two reasons: First, it impacts the way that I love myself. Nothing I have done, am doing or will do can drive a wedge between me and his love for me. Nothing. Second, it impacts the way that I love others around me. Nothing they have done, are doing or will do can drive a wedge between them and his love for them. Nothing. Therefore it shouldn't for me, either.
Can you imagine the splash we could make in the lives of others if we lived this out? We live with wedges between us and others because of what they have done, don't we? Imagine if those were gone. Imagine not having that twinge of discomfort when Muslim man enters the plane after you've taken your seat, because the wedge is gone. Imagine not cracking a joke to your friends when a gay man walks in to the restaurant where you are eating, because the wedge is gone.
Imagine opening your home to your neighbors even thought they believe differently than your family, because the wedge is gone. Imagine spending a weekend serving the less fortunate and most vulnerable, because the wedge is gone. Imagine speaking the truth in love with your co-workers, because the wedge is gone.
What are you imagining being different because there is no wedge between others and your love for them? What might be different if you realized that the wedge between you and God is completely gone?
This is one of those verses I think we had to memorize as a kid and I always thought I "got it". But today I got it differently...
ReplyDeleteIt's the whole he's on my side thing I never got. That when I screw up he's still fighting for me - fighting for me to turn toward him again. When someone dogs me and my feelings are hurt, he's fighting for me - fighting for me to realize I'm worth something to Him. But that also means when I'm hurting for any reason He's fighting for me to get better. When I struggled with depression, He was down in that hole with me fighting for me to climb out.
But what it also means to me is that God is also fighting for other people, and that means that I'm not alone when I'm fighting for them. And I think it also means that even when that person doesn't know Christ that God is fighting for them, which makes me feel like my fighting for them might actually be worth it.
Not sure if that makes total sense... but it did to me!
I'll put it this way... I sometimes feel like my family (the one I was raised) in is under attack because there are so many things going wrong all at once and often I feel like I'm the only one fighting... but realizing that God is in my corner fighting with me against all the bad stuff going on... Maybe this sounds cliche, but satan can't win when God is fighting, too.
It's the whole "Footprints In The Sand" deal right? He's got us covered when we think we are alone. I feel like I put my head in the sand thinking that God doesn't see, hear or know what my inadequacies are, or what I am going through... but this scripture brings truth back to light. He reigns no matter what.
ReplyDeleteStan