Come, Lord Jesus

Someone has said in regard to Christ's Second Coming: "Pray as if it will be tomorrow, work as if it will not be for a thousand years." The properly balanced attitude can be a struggle to achieve; most of us know Christians who live primarily for the best of this world, and others so obsessed with "the end being near" that they are incapable of seeing any hope in the current situation.

Human nature hates to wait, particularly when that waiting comes with no set timetable. The instinctive reaction is to impose our own schedule, to force things prematurely, to convince ourselves that what we want is what must be. When efforts in that direction prove futile, we may fall into despair and decide that giving up altogether hurts less than a constant diet of "maybe today ... maybe not." There are people who have lost faith completely, even become atheists, after Christ failed one too many times to show up when expected. The less drastically inclined simply figure, "Well, He'll come when He's ready," and stop thinking about it at all.

Natural as that reaction is, it's not biblical. The New Testament has much to say about eagerly awaiting Christ's return, even speeding it with our good deeds and prayers. Let us work to build our anticipation of that better time to come, but let us not become impatient. We all know from our lesser "waitings"--to reach the front of the line, to receive test results, to get a job offer or marriage proposal or royalty payment--that a "will you hurry up" attitude kills the joy of receiving when the longed-for thing finally arrives.

But a "well worth waiting for" attitude will make our eventual joy all the sweeter.

Come, Lord Jesus, to our world,
Under Bethlehem skies unfurled,
As the angels come to sing,
"Glory to the infant King,"
Christ and Savior of us all.
Let God's peace upon us fall,
For the Lord of Hope is born
On this blessed, holy morn.

Come, Lord Jesus, to our world:
We await the skies unfurled
On the day God's choir will sing
Victory of the glorious King,
Christ and Savior of us all.
Let God's peace upon us fall,
Every day fresh hope reborn,
Waiting for that coming Morn.

Christian, Look to Your Duty

It's been said before: Work is not a punishment for the Fall, only the drudgery part is. And no job is completely immune to drudgery. The average person is bewildered when professional entertainers show annoyance at requests for impromptu performances on social occasions--how could anyone want a break from a job that's obviously such pure pleasure?

Conversely, most of us have met the occasional person who seems to find tremendous joy in a "rote" job: the tollbooth operator who beams as he waves to each passing driver during a gray rush hour, the data entry clerk who hums happily at her computer while everyone else displays the grim faces of put-upon drones. Where do such attitudes come from? One clue is found in a statement from a cleaning lady at a church, who cheerfully told an interviewer, "I do all my work for the Lord." St. Paul said as much centuries earlier: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Col. 3:23). Ecclesiastes (9:10a) expresses the same concept as "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might"--a useful reminder that good workers look for what needs doing, instead of waiting to be told what to do.

If you read the Colossians verse in context, you'll also find that Paul originally addressed it to slaves--which gives the lie to the idea that one can only be happy in a job of his own choosing. (You might reread the Genesis story of Joseph as an example of someone who epitomized the best of working well without wasting time in bitterness over unwanted circumstances.) This is not, of course, to say that "taking whatever's available" is always the best choice--just that we have no right to demand God, our real Boss, let us write our own "job descriptions." (I speak as someone who tried far too long to adapt the work market to her own leanings instead of the other way around, and is now in the position of starting the whole vocation-planning process over from square one.) What's important is that we follow His leadings in finding work and do it to serve Him--not our own desires for income, enjoyment, or status.

If we serve Him diligently in little things, He will soon enough give us bigger things to do.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
God's holy beauty
Shines through your toil:
Christian,
God gives us gifting,
Talents for lifting
Souls from earth's soil.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
There can be beauty
In lowest task:
Christian,
Work for God's glory:
Show His great story
To all who ask.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
Look to God's beauty,
Labor with prayer:
Christian,
Give Him your praises:
Joyful work raises
The Name we bear.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
Eternal beauty
Waits for its day:
Christian,
Look for your Savior:
His coming favor
Will not delay.

The Beatitudes

If you have a Sunday school background, you probably remember reciting the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit... those who mourn... the meek... those who hunger and thirst for righteousness... the merciful... the pure in heart... the peacemakers... those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake." 

What does it all mean, really? Is it simply a beautiful poem, or a genuine recipe for everyday life? How can one relate the seemingly nebulous blessings it offers--to be called children of God, to be comforted, to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven--to our daily needs?

Small wonder that the Beatitudes begin the Sermon on the Mount, which as a whole has been described as human logic stood on its head. Those who display the seemingly natural desire to have their good works appreciated are called hypocrites; those who save up for the future are scolded for lack of faith and for ignoring Heavenly treasures. And Jesus repeatedly announces, "You have heard it said [based on God's own commandments, no less]... But I say to you." 

How can any human being ever live up to standards like that?

None can--under our own power. The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount is not to impress us with some unattainable ideal, but to impress us with our need for the Holy Spirit's strength within. Only in His strength can we work our way toward God's ideals; He Himself is the "rock" referenced in Mt. 7:24-27, the Foundation on which a God-centered life is built.

Consider that as you read this poetic paraphrase of the Beatitudes.

When you know that you have nothing,
When your souls are free of pride,
Then you are God's Kingdom children,
And for you He will provide.

When your hearts are truly breaking
From the world's and your own sin,
Then God's comfort rests upon you
As His Spirit works within.

When you're free of proud ambition
And complaints about your lot,
God will keep the whole world for you,
More than you had ever sought.

When you crave God's righteous blessing
Over any thing of earth,
He will shower His grace upon you,
Gift of matchless, priceless worth.

When your heart is kind and caring
For the world of human needs,
God extends His hand in mercy,
And your life He richly feeds.

When your heart is pure and righteous,
And you live to do God's will,
He will show His own Self to you,
And your longings He'll fulfill.

When you seek God's peace and justice
For the world as for a friend,
You will be His blessed children,
And your joy will never end.

When you take a stand for Jesus
In the face of taunts and pain,
God will keep great riches for you,
And your earthly loss be gain.

What You've Got

If you had eight million dollars, how much of it would you give to God?

Ten percent? Twenty-five percent? As much as fifty percent?

Good for you.

Do you have eight million dollars?

I didn't think so.

But... how much are you giving of whatever you do have? That same fifty percent?

Well, how about twenty-five percent? 

Are you at least giving the traditional ten percent?

If you are, you may be shocked at what the average American is giving to good causes of any sort: barely more than two percent of his income. And as usual, the average American Christian tends to be hard to distinguish from his secular counterpart here.  

We can rationalize to the end of the world that ten percent of our income is hardly anything anyway, that we can barely make ends meet as it is, that if God wants more from us He should give us more.

But remember that in the parable of the talents, the servant who failed to invest his money got no leniency on the grounds that he had started with less than the others.

And remember Paul's words from 2 Corinthians 8:1-5: "And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will."

Those Macedonian Christians, who had every human justification for pleading they "couldn't afford" to give, were not only willing to do so; they considered it a privilege not to be missed. The key to that attitude is near the end of the passage: "They gave themselves first to the Lord." Yes, they started by willingly offering the one thing everyone has and no one can fully lose without his consent: their very selves. Once that was done, the willingness to give up lesser things came easily.

How much of yourself are you giving to God? Two percent? Ten percent?

Even ninety-nine percent isn't enough. He can't do everything He wants to do in your life until He has the full one hundred percent.

It's not what you could give in service,
If you had a million or two,
So much as the things you're now doing
With all that's been given to you.

It's not what you could say for Jesus,
If you had the platform of fame,
So much as the things you're now saying
And doing each day in His name.

When called to account for your lifetime,
Will you answer, full of excuse,
"Well, I had the greatest intentions,
But God gave me little to use"?

He's given you all that is needed,
Right now this immediate day,
For whatever work He's assigned you--
Are you walking now in His way?

For if you neglect what He's given,
What sense lies in wishing for more?
The Lord is a generous Giver,
Who holds endless riches in store,

But keeps them reserved for the wisest,
Who realize that small things will grow,
When used in His ways and His service,
To things far more grand than you know!

Waking or Sleeping

You may know the classic hymn, "Be Thou My Vision"--the one with the first verse that ends, "Thou my  best Thought, by day or by night,/Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light." St. Paul expressed roughly the same thought in one of the most succinct verses in Scripture--1 Thessalonians 5:17, "pray continually." 

Truly, is God the dominant Subject in your mind--to the point where even your dreams are full of godly thoughts?

I for one have a long way to go toward that ideal. When tempted to fretting and other sins of thought, nine times out of ten I either give them full indulgence or retreat into irrelevant daydreams, rather than redirecting my mind toward the Source of all comfort. The former is the old natural-feeling approach, after all; and who, being already stressed out, wants to expend yet more energy working on new thought habits? 

All the more reason not to wait for a crisis before laying the foundation of a consistent-prayer reflex.

Many have found it a good starting point to focus on God for the last waking hour of each day; instead of watching the news before bed, they gave that time over to Bible reading, quiet music, and prayer. They subsequently reported sleeping better--and finding their minds more readily tuned to God as the next day began.

Why not try sleeping on God tonight and see if you don't wake in awareness of Him tomorrow?

Lord, this day draws to an end:
Let my mind cease from its churning
And from each concern still burning--
Free my sleep from toss-and-turning;
Let me rest in You, my Friend.

Lord, the morning breaks anew:
Waking thoughts my mind are filling--
Let them not bring dread and chilling,
But let me in joy rise willing,
Freshly eager to serve You.

Lord, through night and daylight hour,
Through each day this world is turning,
Tune my ears to You in yearning:
Let my heart be always learning,
Ever strengthened by Your power.

Sing Praise to God, Who Made the Stars

Even in today's light-polluted cities, the stars still have power to make us feel small. Psalm 8:3-4 still puts it best: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" And David didn't even know that most of those stars are hundreds of times bigger than Earth and thousands of light years distant.

Even today, we try to scale down the universe to what our minds can grasp, routinely crafting science fiction that erases the difficulties of traveling faster than light and balancing the "time zones" of separate solar systems. Likewise, we frequently try to understand God by our own logic: "Why doesn't He do this/stop that/straighten these things out when any reasonable human being would if given the power?" Some people, having accepted that they can't figure God out, go to the opposite extreme and conclude He probably doesn't understand them either--or care to.

There's a Christmas fable about a man who couldn't see why God would become human until he saw a flock of birds blundering about in a snowstorm, and, unable to make them understand that shelter was nearby, found himself wishing he could become a bird and lead them there. Christmas is where we find the balance between our inability to comprehend God and His desire to have us know Him, between the Maker of vast space and the Father Who guards and guides our every step through this world.

This Advent, take time to think about the love and humility involved in God's own Incarnational step between two realities.

Sing praise to God, Who made the stars, Who rules the whole of space;

From farthest galaxy to Mars, He gives each part a place;

Down to this tiny world of ours, He holds them by His grace.

Sing praise to God, Who made the sea, the land, and all that flies;

The greatest whale, the smallest flea, He watches with His eyes;

He likewise watches you and me; and He is good and wise.

Sing praise to God, Who gives us breath, Who guards us every day,

Who will not let us live bereft, but seeks us when we stray,

Who loves us all from birth to death, and leads us in His way.

Sing praise to God, Who made all time, each moment and each year,

Who holds us by His Power divine, and calms our every fear: 

“I’m coming back,” He says, “for Mine, and I will dry each tear.”

New Every Morning

Unless you're a natural optimist and experienced achiever, the prospect of New Year's resolutions--or of "making a change" at any time of year--can start to feel like a cruel joke after age 35. "What's the use of trying again; I always fail" is a cry-of-the-heart for many who once had big dreams for building the perfect life but are now looking at their current lives in despair, thinking that if it were meant to be they'd surely have it right by now. While a toddler learning to walk will "try, try again" after a hundred or a thousand tumbles, adults are cursed with the knowledge that not everything is possible--and most of us are all too quick to turn that knowledge into the syllogism, "If something is impossible, I will fail when I try to do it. I failed when I tried to do this. Therefore, this is impossible." Instead of putting past mistakes behind us, we let them stand in front, blocking our view of future possibilities.

They are likely also blocking our view of the God of all possibility. It's not for nothing that the Bible tells us to "become like little children" and that God's eternal faithfulness is marked by mercies that are "new every morning." Probably the reason so many of us hate getting out of bed in the morning is that we have lost the ability to see the new day as truly new. We're sure that the day will only bring more of the same old miserable drudgery--and that belief quickly turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. What little faith we have, refusing to look for new and better possibilities because we have no hope of finding any and see no point in putting ourselves to that kind of work.

Before you go to bed tonight, why not get out the concordance and look up all the times the Bible uses the word "new"? Pick four or five verses that speak of new life in God, meditate on them thoroughly, and pray that they will be on your mind when you awaken.

Then see if getting up tomorrow isn't a little easier. 

Lord, give me, just for today,

The strength to resist temptation,

Pure joy in my vocation,

A heart filled with satisfaction—

Be with me each step of the way:

Give me strength not to dread circumstances,

Nor to dwell on my own plans or actions,

But to take every moment that happens

As a gift from Your hand, I pray.