In the middle of the story...

Recently my attention has been drawn to moments in the bible and moments in my life that are in the middle of the story.  Sometimes the middle is exciting, sometimes it's discouraging, but most of the time--it's just confusing.

Meditating on the Christmas story, I try to think what Mary and Joseph might have felt. Giving birth to the God child certainly wasn't in their long-range plan. I wonder if they ever thought they just dreamed the whole thing. Did Mary wake up horrified, then relieved thinking it was a dream, only to see her baby bump--and realize again that she was indeed carrying the Christ. (Yeah, I said baby bump.)

Did Joseph have similar thoughts? Did he hit his knees every day with questions? "How exactly is this going to happen again? What do we do once He's born? How do we begin to raise...God?"

I've also been reading about Jesus' last days before the crucifixion.  How did the disciples feel right after the crowd had seized Jesus to put him to death? These men, who were his loyal band, had fled. As time moved forward, Jesus was put to death. Jesus, the One that had given them hope...who had given sight to the blind and brought the dead back to life...was dead. Was their grief saturated with confusion? Was their hope gone? 

They were in the middle of the story.

From the middle, it is hard to see how good can come out of hard times.

From the middle, it is easy to get discouraged.

What do you do in the middle?

After Mary had asked her question about this uparalleled virgin birth, she began to soak in the enormity of the situation. Then she responded in a statement I will never get over. 

"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word."  Luke 1:38  

Obedience. When presented with an incomprehensible task, Mary founded her response in Who God is and her role as His servant. With all that we don't know about what is coming next in the story, we can focus on Who God is.

He is faithful. He is creator. He is sustainer. He is sovereign. He "Is."

So...we are to be obedient in what God has called us to do. We are to trust Him for the details He hasn't revealed to us.

The Christ child was born, and He did grow up, and God managed to help Mary and Joseph figure out what to do each step of the way.

Jesus did die, but in His death and resurrection, the most beautiful exchange took place so that people who could never earn life, would be given eternal life in Christ. 

The disciples didn't have to understand it all and the plan wasn't contingent upon their ability to be faithful to the Lord.

We don't have to understand it all and God certainly doesn't need us either. But as His servants, our goal should be to be faithful to Him. Our only proper response is obedience.

That is not to say that obedience is easy. Or even that we will always know what we should do. Like so many before us, we must seek Him for guidance. We can trust Him to guide us.

Often, obedience is incredibly difficult.

Obedience can be difficult even if we know Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose."

I'm not sure if this statement was original to Martha Morrison, but I think she was the one who said, "Sometimes when people "Romans 8:28" us, it makes us want to "Colt 45" them." So I guess "Romans 8:28" can be used as a verb. That sounds like a Jon Acuff post: www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike. 

In fact, it probably is, because there is a common tension there. Many Christians have a head knowledge that this scripture is true and can bring hope, but then we should all know that there are times when people grieving don't need to be assaulted with it.  "I'm sorry your dad died, well- Romans 8:28..."

I'll leave it to the Holy Spirit to guide you when to share that scripture and when to listen to someone, sit with them, and pray for them.

Back to the middle of the story...yep, you're still there.  We're all still there.

I must admit that one of the reasons I love movies is that I can pretty much predict that in 2 hours all the struggles are going to be resolved.  Those are the kind of movies I like, I'll admit. 

Not one of us knows when our lives or this world will be wrapped up, but we need to be aware and prepared for Christ's return or our last breath.  If you are not, deal with that asap. Seek God, His word and talk to a bible-saturated Christian about how to follow Him. There is no hope for salvation apart from Jesus, and destruction is certain without Him.

Okay, so I just jumped to the end. Just in reference though, there is only one author of time. We can only make sure we are ready for the end. There are no fast-forward buttons.

I'm pretty sure God intended it that way. The middle of the story needs to be there. We need to be here.

Whatever story you find yourself in the middle of, seek the author and perfector of our faith.

Wherever you are in the story, you don't have to be alone.

He.is.there. He.is.here.
God with us.



 

Have you been accidentally ignoring this command too?

   "I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to "rejoice" as much as by anything else" - C.S. Lewis

A few weeks ago I had one of those days where the same scripture pops up a couple of times in a row. In my personal reading one morning I had read, 

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice!”  Philippians 4:4

...and then later that day at a prayer meeting (not led by me) that scripture surfaced again. 

I get it. I need to rejoice. Then a week or so later I stumbled across the above CS Lewis quote. Yep, ouch. Do we really think about the command to rejoice as a COMMAND? 

I don’t. Not most of the time.  

“Rejoice” is one of those flowerful words that has worked its way into my hearing, but doesn’t happen regularly in my week.  I guess I thought of it more as a suggestion, something we should do – you know, perhaps like flossing.  (All you daily flossers, quit judging me. My dental hygienist said I did a good job flossing btw…fooled her. Perhaps that is what I really think about rejoicing. I should do it – and I do it some, so yeah – that’s enough. – i.know-.longest.parenthetical.note.ever.)

Who can "rejoice always" anyway? I don’t know about you, but I encounter people regularly who have dealt with real pain, and rejoicing in some of their circumstances seems, well – impossible.*

This falls into that group of pesky scriptures that seem to go a little too far…like forgiving as Christ forgave you, loving your enemies, praying continually, etc. Shouldn’t God have made sure we could fulfill all He commands us to do? That would definitely up our stats. It’s funny how the things He asks us to do are beyond our ability. But that’s just the thing-- they are beyond OUR abilities. We absolutely have to depend on His grace, His power, His Spirit’s leading to fulfill the expectations of scripture.  Remember how we were desperately in need of God’s grace to be made right with Him? We are still desperately in need of God’s grace to live rightly in Him.

And-so…God, I’m going to need your help with this. I know that I have a lot to rejoice about. Help me to see things from your perspective. Help me to see things as they really are. Help me not to set my eyes on insignificant things, but to open my eyes to ALL that is in You. I confess my failure to rejoice.

Rejoice in the Lord, always, again I say, Rejoice!

Before going live with this I decided to do a little research and make sure I really was getting this right.  (Thanks to Dr. Shaddix who cautioned us to make sure we weren’t saying, “Thus saith the Lord” unless we were sure the Lord said so!!) I take that responsibility very seriously. 

So the consensus is that the command to rejoice really is a command. As in, we don’t get to decide that it is one we are "for" or "against," the type we will obey or attempt to casually ignore.  Also, to my friends like me whose minds go to the exceptions to the rule…yes, scripture says to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice.  Yes, there are times to mourn! I think the question we really need to ask though is, when we aren’t legitimately mourning, are we rejoicing? How much do we truly rejoice in our lives? Those of us "in Christ" have been brought from death to life, we’ve been given freedom instead of chains, the insurmountable debt against us has been paid, and the One we turned against has forgiven us AND invited us into an intimate relationship with Him. Oh let us rejoice! There are so many reasons to rejoice!

**In my research I came across another great note, especially in light of my comment regarding how hard it is to rejoice in some situations (I think I said *impossible).  Kevin Pierpont noted that God didn’t inspire these words about rejoicing to come through someone who wasn’t familiar with hardship. God chose Paul to proclaim this tough message.

Paul is a great one to call others to rejoice and to emphasize the importance of rejoicing in the Lord. He was one who practiced what he preached. He was in prison when he wrote, “rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice.” He suffered through beatings and shipwrecks and all kinds of hardship yet remained joyful. He’s not one we can say, “well that’s easy for you to say, you don’t know how hard my life is.” Paul knew plenty of difficulty and yet his strength was in the joy of the Lord.

                                                                                  kevinpierpont.com

“This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”  Philippians 4:4