When we think of the resolutions we make, they are positive. We want to be better, stronger, greater, ect. Most of us don’t make resolutions like, I want to suffer more, or I want troubles, but in the Christian life, we are told that we will have troubles.
So how do we reconcile this idea that we should strive to better, that we should desire to the best that we can with the gifts and talents that God has given us and the fact that we are going to have trouble?
The burden of the resolution often results in failure sometime later. The gyms are full in January and by March…. They are almost back to the normal crowd. But Jesus told his disciples that all these troubles would come – so that they would have peace.
You’re going to suffer! Have peace… it doesn’t quite sound right….
Working at a Christian camp from time to time we were encouraged during difficult times that when God is working in such significant ways, we shouldn’t be surprised that the devil puts up a fight. So yes, if we are doing God’s will, we will have trouble! Take courage, you’re on the right path!
Perhaps the fact that we will suffer can help us shape our goals and resolutions better. I will strive to maintain a healthy body so that I can glorify God and maybe learn better self-discipline in the process. But I know that I will age and my body will break and I look forward to the new body I will receive in heaven. I commit to managing my money more wisely – so that I can be part of Christ’s Kingdom coming here on earth. I commit to spending more time with family and friends instead of screens because God loves people, not pixels.
So how does your faith impact your resolutions?
Are the resolutions we make a way of once again dying to sin and picking up our cross and following Christ?
How will you react when you can’t keep your resolution? When we fail? When we grow old?
John 16:33
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
As we begin the new year many make resolutions. Be more healthy, save money, study more, be happier or something else. Resolutions are a fresh start. The old year has finished and we are looking forward to something new. As Christians, we too look forward to something new. God is continuing to create something new in us, and we don’t have to wait until January 1st for God to start His work.
This new year, I resolve to pray. Not because I don’t already, but I have become distracted. And when I don’t pray I am less aware of how God is working in me. In Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica, he writes, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances.” My resolve to pray isn’t just before I eat or before I sleep, it is a resolve that prayer might be something that is woven into the way that I live.
Yes, I am going to fail at this. But the grace of God is incredible that I don’t have to wait to next year to start again. Pray continually. And when I realize that I have become distracted, pray again. And through all of this may I see, just a little more clearly, the hand of God working.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Passover. It is one of the appointed times. One of the festivals that God appointed for the people of Israel to keep every year. It reminds me of a conversation that we had early this year while reading the weekly Torah portions.
It was Exodus 10-13. The story of the final plague and the exodus from Egypt. And at the beginning of chapter 12, God gives the people of Israel their first command. He realigns their calendars.
Not the first time God talked about time, in the garden of Eden, the first thing God created was day and night, and on the fourth day, planets and moons to tell time, and in the seventh day he made time holy, the only thing in creation to be made holy.
At the first passover they are commanded to re-align their calendar with God's. Restructure their week, their year, their festivals and celebrations and time is no longer to calibrated by the Egyptian gods, the Nile and it's cycles, but instead it is to be calibrated to the moon, the sun, the movement of the planet and seasons, the objects that God created with the purpose to tell time.
Today, the concepts of time are varied. Fleeting, precious, valuable, something to just get through or simply something you never have enough of.
There is a whole genres of literature and entertainment based on things like space- time dimensions, time-travel and the like.
But what we rarely call time - holy.
Why?
Is it because it might demand more of us? In an age of quick, instant, fast paced and individual interests to set aside time is a costly demand. We manage our time very carefully. We know how long it takes to get from here to there, how long can we sleep in, how many time can really press snooze and still get where I need to be on time. We know how to effectively accomplish things we need to. We count the hours we work, and calendars and day-planners are often not far away.
I've encountered the idea going without time. At camp it happened a couple time while out-tripping that we wouldn't look at watches or the time and just take the day as it goes. It is freeing in a way, but if God created time and order, what if it isn't about getting away from keeping time - but rather about what we are keeping time for.
"You're wasting my time...." I have heard this phrase a lot. It is an attitude that I have found within myself. It goes hand in hand with "my time is valuable". The commonality - 'my time'.
Who possesses time?
Do I ultimately own the time that is given to me? It is as if a kid is holding onto their allowance, buying candy and refusing to share it. As if they automatically forget where the money first came from.
If time was the first thing that was called holy, is it not the most valuable gift that we can give back to God? It is like the same lessons we use about money or possessions - that what we have is not really ours, but blessings from God for which we are called to be good stewards of.
The difference - even if you don't have money - everyone has time.
When God created the world - before the fight with evil even began - he ordained one of every 7 days to be holy. And in a world that struggles with evil constantly I struggle to give time, even part of the 7th back to God.
And not giving as in hands off - do as you will with it time - but as time to stop, and rest. To remember that I did not create this time. It is not calibrated by my events or tasks. It doesn't bring attention things I think important, but rather, points to something, someone bigger.
It is a valuable blessing of which I am commanded and privileged to partaking, the time given to me, and the time given to those around me.
Even in the time I 'give' to God, I find I can still be caught up in the busyness. I let what I do define who I am, rather than seek to find who I am in Him.
It is easy to point to the passage about worshiping God in every aspect of our lives.
Yes, I believe we ought to do that.
The word used for worship in Exodus is the same word for serve, or work, it is active or doing something. And just as the Hebrews left Egypt to go worship in the desert and once they were gone, there was no going back, the nature of our call to worship is life long. Paul changes the language and call us to be living sacrifices.
Yes, worship God in whatever you do - but do not do in order to take away from time with God.
I can give money or things - I just let it go. But to really give time , it opens up a space in which something may happen. I may see something or hear something that I don't want to see.
And so in a way I can see how that might be intimidating, but when we worship - it is not only what we give to God.
When we open up that space, the time, the time that God has already declared holy, God is already there and although we might see something we don't want to, more than that, God meets us there because He has an undieing love and incredible faithfulness to those who He has chosen.
Yesterday was Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish New Year.
We celebrated with a group of friends and dinner together! It was a lot fun. I enjoy celebrating these holidays, not just for the sake of extra holidays, but they seem to be very applicable to New Testament as well.
It is a celebration of new starts and making things right. From my understanding it starts a season of making things right with each other before Yom Kippur - the day of Judgement. It is a time of celebration, but also has a piece of introspection attached to it.
This music video might give you an idea of what Rosh Hashannah is celebrating
My thoughts go back to forgiving.
It is hard. It is more than I'm sorry, it is more than pretending it is alright. It is a deep down heart change that refuses to look at that person as an enemy but pleads with God to let me see that person as God sees them. And however long that process takes, however painful that it is, pursuing that perspective until when I think of that person I think of them I no longer think of them with the hurt they caused, but as one loved by God.
When I neglect to extend forgiveness I have neglected to recognize that they are also a child of God. I have forgotten that I too was in that place totally undeserving of grace. In a way it requires humbleness to forgive, because to truly forgive is because we have been forgiven first.
1 John 4:19 We love because Christ first loved us.
All too often I don't pursue or reject forgiving, I just ignore it. I avoid confrontation. I would rather just pretend it didn't exist and walk away and maybe someday it will all be better. But as a Christian, covered by the grace of God's love I'm called to extend it to others. Maybe the grace they see from me is the only shadow of God's grace they will see, and to cover them in that shadow I must be close to them.
These thought have been rolling around in my mind over the past couple years as I struggle and learn more about forgiveness and God's love. It is easy to say these thing as concepts, just like the rich man with whom Jesus talked could accept the command 'love your neighbour'. But the part that he struggled with was when it was further define who his 'neighbour' was.
What if God loves... the perpetrator of evil?
What if God loves... the radical terrorist?
What if God loves... the government who is allowing so much injustice?
What if God loves... the one who hurt your family or friend?
What if God loves... the one who hurt you?
What if God loves... the one who is still hurting?
What if God loves... the person I hate?
What if God loves... me?
God does.
Forgiveness is not justifying their actions. It is not saying that it is ok! God never said, "It's all ok" he said, "go and sin no more". If we stop counting their actions and starting asking how God ought to have us love them then maybe we can start in a better place. Maybe the best way to love someone who is hurting you or who has hurt you includes setting up and supporting appropriate boundaries like not being alone with them. Maybe it includes taking a stand and voicing the truth. But above all, it is to seek restoration rather than retribution.
In any case, if we want to truly love and extend God's grace to our neighbours, it is not going to be a cookie cutter "I'm sorry" and "I forgive you". It seeks the best for them, it seeks to love them as Christ loves them. It is to desperately pursue a perspective that they are actively loved by God and to respond to them in an appropriate manner.
Sometime I see or hear of people who feel ostracized from a Christian communities because of their past or their history. Their participation and freedom is limited, instead of finding ways to welcome and support them. All the while they are told that God can save everyone - and even the vilest murder can be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven, but they fail to be accepted them into the kingdom of heaven here on earth. So, either we don't really believe that they will be accepted (Romans 10:13), or we don't believe that the kingdom of heaven is here (Luke 17:21).
I want to see more communities that embraces the truth that God change hearts and celebrated that God makes beautiful things out of our broken pieces.
It is hard. But within that difficulty I have learned more about God's love for me in ways I can't describe, and the value of forgiveness, both towards me and from me.
This might be some heavy thoughts at a time of celebration. But rejoice in this, if you have accepted Christ, you are covered by his grace. You are forgiven, and if those are just words, ask that He shows you value of that forgiveness. As we understand and can rejoice in the grace that covers us, let us freely give.
As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10:7-8
