While the world around you seems to be increasingly dis-membered what do you continually need to re-member? When everything in your life appears to be coming apart what should you intentionally set apart? Since you may be feeling helplessly scattered what will help you be more gathered? In such times what things are there to hold on to?
Everything is under fire. Be it culture, country or church, family or faith, belief system or system of governance, when they become challenged, there is a sickening feeling of threat. When tensions rise, voices express angry judgements or violence clashes with efforts to bring order, an inner dis-ease begins to fester within. Fear attempts to take over when justice is in question. What, above all, should matter?
These things I remember…
- God is. Whether or not I currently may believe it, God is. And, He is as equally loving as He is just. My circumstances will not define the One who is above them. The One who was, is, and is to come, is Sovereign over it all, or He is not God at all! The fact that I may struggle to believe in Him in my own struggles will not determine His existence, nor how loving or just He is. Before I was, God is.
- He is God and I am not. No matter how hard I may try on my own to bring about needed change, I am only a change agent. I alone can’t force or make anything of significance happen. Apart from Him I can do nothing. He alone holds court over it all, and will bring about what is necessary in His time. He, alone, is God, not me.
- My life is not my own. It belongs to the One who gave me life, way beyond my parents, and I willingly yield it to Him. To try to possessively keep my life, as if I can be spared its vulnerability or suffering, is an effort of selfish futility. Yet to actively give my life for others, as for Him, is a service of selfless enduring love. In this way I am not a vocal victim but a silent victor. My life is not my own – ever.
- I am not alone. Though in my world, along the hallway of endless challenges, there may seem to be an echo, I am never alone there. He is with me. Even though I may be tempted to feel abandoned, I remain with my Father even though I can’t touch His hand. It is always I who may leave Him, but He never leaves me. His word to that affect is more than His bond. He always hears my cry, for with Him, I am not alone.
In a dismembered world, these things I remember. They hold me together, providing meaning and security. Changing or worsening conditions can quickly cause me to forget. I may even stumble and fall. Why then get up? Because I remember.
What do you need to remember, hold on to, that has been lost to you in recent days?
– RWO/MAST
Comments by Ric Ochsner