Thy Will Be Done

Even in the twenty-first century, a few Scripture passages are still famous in their King James translations. One of these is the Lord's Prayer: "...Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done." And another is Jesus's Gethsemane prayer: "Not My will but Thine be done." There is a shining example of practicing what one preaches. Anyone can say to God, "Do whatever You think is best" when we have little obvious to lose either way; anyone can counsel someone else to accept a difficult situation as "God's will"; but the real test of spiritual strength comes when, facing situations we would do anything to get out of, we sense God saying, "Go through with it." Are we able then to sincerely say, "However much I dread this, Lord, Your will takes precedence over mine"?

For too many of us, the answer is "no" in situations far less serious than imminent crucifixion. Even serious Christians can fall under the influence of a society that preaches "you get what you want by thinking positive" and detests slow progress and delayed gratification. We often pray in the manner of whining children and selfish sweethearts: "If You really loved me You'd give me what I wanted when I wanted it!" Alas, our God is a God of tough love, and not someone who can be bullied or manipulated. He gives us things for our own good, whether we like it or not.

The more mature among us eventually learn, if not exactly to like our struggles, to face them with the attitude of Jesus: "For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame" (Heb. 12:2). Once we develop a strong confidence in what God has waiting for us, we can finally say "Your will, not mine, be done" and mean it--not because God's will is always easy to live with, but because we appreciate that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Cor. 4:17).

A vision like that makes even crucifixion worth enduring.

Lord, my soul is stubborn,
Always longing for
Things to make me "happy,"
Health, and wealth, and more.
Lord, Your Word has told me
Joy will come through trial:
Free my heart from grumbling
At each "second mile."

Lord, my heart is selfish:
All it wants is ease
And a life of constant
"Doing as I please."
Lord, Your Word has told me,
"Be a slave to all."
Make my spirit humble,
Lest I slip and fall.

Lord, my mind is prideful,
Longing for a day
Praise and fame and glory
All will line my way.
Lord, Your Word has told me,
"Be the humble one."
Take my will and mold it;
May Your will be done.

A Perfect Day

A frequently heard suggestion for "living right" is to start each morning by saying out loud, "This is going to be a wonderful day." Not bad advice, really, unless you demand that "wonderful" include every tiny aspect of said day. Those of us with perfectionist tendencies can get surly even about inarguably good things, if they don't fit our prewritten "scripts." ("What's the big idea serving gourmet cheesecake when I had my heart set on a chocolate chip cookie?")

Probably a better saying for Christians to start their days with is the Bible verse "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Ps. 118:24, NIV, 1984 edition). But many of those to whom this verse is familiar have probably never read it in context. Psalm 118 as a whole is no idyllic pastoral meditation, but sets a scene of "anguish," hard battles, and severe "chastening." The writer rejoices because God delivered him out of trouble, even from near death. He never complains because God didn't stop things from going that far.

There's someone from whom those inclined to grumble over traffic jams could take a lesson.

Do you hope this will be a perfect day?
Has there ever been such a thing?
Does not every day in this fallen world
At least one disappointment bring?
Are you tempted to find some tiny flaw
And to let it ruin all the rest
Of your day? Do you curse the smallest pain
For disturbing your "perfect" quest?

Even Christ Himself, when He walked on earth,
Knew frustration and stress and strain, 
And He did not come to remove all such,
But to show us where loss is gain.
When we walk with Him, He will give us strength
To be faithful, and watch and pray,
Till we all stand pure, at the end of time,
In our God's endless, perfect Day!

When He Came

Some readers, on seeing the opening verse of today's poem, may wonder if it was intended to post before Christmas, not three weeks after. Or you may feel a bit chided if, like some of my neighbors, you haven't yet taken down all your decorations. However much we talk in December about "keeping the spirit of Christmas all year," few of us really seem interested in Christ-in-the-manger by January. Which would be a minor problem except that for many, the story of Jesus stops at the manger. As one Advent writer put it, even Christians tend to prefer the cute baby to the "bossy, grown-up Jesus."

We shouldn't forget that the concept of Advent was created to encourage not only the remembering of Christ's first coming, but the looking forward to His return--and that's an attitude that can come naturally in any season. Now, I don't endorse the obsession with an imminent Parousia (if indeed it is imminent) that consumes many believers to the point that their whole concept of "God's work" seems to be harping on the sorry state of this world. But probably as many go to the opposite extreme and live for worldly success while treating God only as a source of material blessing. What He wants is for us to work hard under His guidance to make this world more like His future Kingdom, while maintaining a humble yet eager awareness that only He will bring it in fullness and permanence.

That's the way Jesus Himself lived--making the Kingdom a present as well as a future reality.

No proper rooms were free that night; no lodging could be found

Except among the animals; few people gathered round

That peasant woman as her Baby took first earthly breath,

And cried, as newborn infants do, within this world of death.

And just a few, among the lowest in the land’s esteem,

Would know the coming of their Lord, would see their God’s light gleam.

There was no wealth, no great renown, no trace of mortal fame,

Upon that night that touched the world with starlight when He came.

No hope, it seemed, could yet remain when that dread day was past

When, hanging bloody on a Cross, the Master breathed His last.

For human hearts crave earthly might, and dream of crown and throne:

Who would have thought the Lord of All could die in pain, alone?

And just a few, in coming days, despite the empty grave,

Had eyes to see the Risen One, to realize all He gave.

Although His power would shake the city through the Spirit’s flame,

The quiet dawn was little stirred when from the tomb He came.

Still mocking God and all His ways is this world as a whole,

This world that worships human pomp and scorns the humble soul.

Still mortal hearts crave wealth and power from their first earthly breath,

And still the helpless mourn and weep within this world of death.

But, someday soon, the day will come when Heaven shall open wide,

And from the heights there shall descend our Lord, the Glorified.

However many years we wait, as daughters and as sons,

We know all pain will melt away forever when He comes.

O, Master of Heaven

Welcome to New Songs from the Heart 2011!

My last (pre-Christmas) post talked about how we sabotage the true spirit of Advent by wishing for a quick ride to our "ideal" image. Perhaps I also should have noted a deeper source of the problem; we set that ideal (and its timeline) by our own judgment, and try to reach it by our own strength. If this is a stumbling block at Advent, it's all the more so in early January. Just about everyone, Christian or not, starts each year determined to get all the bugs out of her life by next December--then, typically, lets the resolve die of neglect by February. Most New Year's Resolutions lists are motivated by an optimism that, if not exactly blind, could certainly use a strong pair of glasses. If exchanging old habits for new ones was a hard struggle in 2010, why should the coming of 2011 make it any easier?

New year or no, we still live in the same old world. And we aren't going to make it--or ourselves--any different.

Am I saying everything is hopeless? Not at all. I'm saying that we forget Who really does the work of making the world--and us--new. That we too easily get impatient because He refuses to work according to our orders. That our resolutions and plans fail because we make them without consulting Him, or try to achieve them without acknowledging our dependence on His strength. He is the One Who will "make everything new" (see Rev. 21:1-5)--in His time.

Since much of our frustration stems from forgetting God is in charge of everything, today's poem takes a look at Him in a wide variety of aspects: Trinity, Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier--and ultimate Consummator and Ruler.

O, Master of Heaven, Creator of all,
Who brought forth the world by the sound of Your call,
It was Your command that made everything grow:
Your power is far greater than mortal can know.

O, Christ, Blessed Savior, Redeemer of all,
What joy leaps within us when we hear Your call!
It was for our sins that Your life-blood did flow:
Your love is far greater than mortal can know.

O, Marvelous Spirit, Enlightener of all,
While You dwell within us we never can fall.
You’re working to make us as pure as the snow,
With wisdom far greater than mortal can know.

O, Lord of all being, great Ruler of all,
We long for the day of Your summoning call.
With time passed away, still Your rule on will go:
And we’ll see Your face, and pure joy we will know.

Lord, You Brought My Life to Being

This will be my last post of 2010, as I prepare for Christmas break. In early 2011 I hope to announce a new website where readers can purchase my book based on this blog, Where Light Dawns: Christian Poems of Hope for Hurting Hearts. In the meantime, please e-mail all inquiries to kswarts@ix.netcom.com.

***

We all know that Advent is ideally a time of worshipful contemplation and of thanks to God for sending Jesus into the world and for all the Second Coming promises. And probably 90% of us continue to bog down each year in the swamp of "love it in theory but can't make it work in practice." Too much shopping, too much food, too many invitations, too many mailings--all of which we feel obligated to go through with even as the sum total leaves us exhausted and feeling guilty. Ultimately, we all have to face it: unless we're among the few for whom it's practical to move to a retreat center for three weeks, our special Advent time has to be carefully scheduled and usually comes out smaller than we'd hoped for.

Part of the problem may well be that our hopes are unreasonable. If you're anything like me, one thing you'd love to get for Christmas--or any time of the year--is a spiritual discipline program that works like piano lessons: clearly defined exercises, set hours, obvious signs of progress, and ultimately a mastery that ensures you never again have to struggle to learn more or do the right thing. I can now hear the real musicians chiding me for my overly idealized description of mastering the piano: "Obviously, she doesn't know about the monotony of practicing the same exercise over and over, the frustration of fearing you'll never master a difficult movement, the temptations to skip practice, the image of perfection that only recedes as you advance!" Okay, I admit that the "reach the peak and rest" dream is always an illusion, whether we're talking about the fine arts, education, or spiritual growth.

Ironic how quickly our noblest goals are tainted by laziness and the selfish desire for expediency. And ironic how quickly, after being saved, we forget all God gives us and start whining about what we still want. Most of us should have little trouble identifying with the Israelites in the wilderness, whose theme song quickly became, "How do we know God will continue providing for our needs--especially when what He provides isn't that great anyway?" We not only want what we want when we want it, we want it before we want it, as though even having to ask were more work than should be expected of us.

The real purpose of Advent is the same purpose that lay behind all the ancient Jewish festivals commanded by God, and that still lies behind their Christian counterparts today. That purpose is to take time to remember how great God is, how small we are, and how good He is to give us anything at all--let alone as much as He does. Especially since we constantly seem bent on doing everything possible to prove we deserve nothing but scolding and punishment.

That God still loves us and will do anything to supply our true needs, is the real gift.

Lord, You brought my life to being,

Gave me all the power I need

To perform Your works with purpose,

Praising You in every deed.

Still I greet each dawning morning

With a groan of inward dread:

“Only pain and stress await me;

Why should I desert my bed?”

Lord, through all that life has brought me

You have fed me by Your hand,

Led me safe through fiery struggles,

Silenced storms by Your command.

Still I test Your power and goodness:

Oh, how quickly I forget

All the wonders You have shown me,

All the needs that You have met!

Lord, You discipline Your children

With a Father’s love and care:

In each trial or pain that strikes me,

Your controlling hand is there.

Still I have despised Your chastening,

And my fleshly, selfish lust

Turns my thoughts to fretful pouting:

“What I want is always just!”

Lord, You know my human weakness;

I am but a fleeting wind

With a life that soon will perish,

Not to walk this earth again.

You, the One Who lives forever,

Weak and sinful though I be,

Share that endless life in mercy:
Lord, forgive, and set me free!

Looking Ahead

In 1994, B. J. Oropeza published the book 99 Reasons Why No One Knows When Christ Will Return. Some seventeen years later, most of the current-events references are out of date, nearly all the world leaders referred to are out of power, and the majority of dates that various groups predicted for the end of the world have passed. Which, of course, only supports Oropeza's point: the idea that "this is surely the generation of Christ's return because times can't get much worse" was never intended to be a central doctrine of the Christian faith.

Still, the "date-setter" crowd never seems to learn. An Amazon.com search for "end times prophecy" revealed over 750 currently available books on the topic; a Google search, 636,000 results. My own home town (Houston, TX), hosted a major "end times" conference earlier this year, at which time at least one prominent Christian radio station suspended a day of regular programming to discuss the topic. Never mind how many times believers have wrongly predicted the Second Coming (or how ridiculous they made the Church look in the process); this time things are different.

And, admittedly, the claim that "human technology now, for the first time, has power to destroy the whole world" has some validity. Still, that doesn't prove we will destroy the world in this decade, this generation, or this century. How many sociologists predicted that a nuclear war would take place before the year 2000?

I'm no sociologist, but I suspect many "end times" adherents are motivated less by love of Jesus than by love of their own comfort; they want God to end the world so they won't have to put up with it any longer, won't have to suffer directly if things do reach the point of catastrophe, won't have to consider that they may personally be supposed to put some effort (complete with inconveniences and dangers) into bringing about reform on a major scale. If God won't promise them long lives free of want and frustration, they want to at least trade their lives for Heaven as painlessly as possible.

John Ankerberg and John Weldon, referencing Oropeza in "Why Is It Wrong for Christians to Predict When Christ Will Return to Earth?," note that "We are living in the last days [defined as the whole time period between Pentecost and the Parousia] but... we cannot know how long these days will last.... the question is not so much whether we should be ready to meet God at such and such a date in the future, but are we ready to meet Him now?" And are we also ready to accept that, if Christ does not return in our lifetimes, things may well reach the point where we have to endure homelessness and persecution--even the complete collapse of the comfortable, safe, stable world Westerners have long taken for granted? Do we really appreciate the greater blessings God has for His people who suffer?

More than that, do we have the right attitude in looking forward to the eternal order that will come eventually: seeing it not simply as the end of our hardships, but as the ultimate consummation of the greatest good--the glory of God?

Looking forward to eternity in that spirit is the secret of joy in all circumstances. 

Whatever may come to discourage me,
There are two great truths I know:
I am nearer to Heaven than yesterday;
And, in Christ I am free to grow.
Let me not look too hard at how far I am
From perfection, as Christ compares,
Except insofar as it makes me meek,
And keeps humble my thoughts and prayers.

But, lest I decide that the walk's too long,
And thus lose the will to try,
Let me also look at the Heavenly crown
That is waiting for me on high.
Keep my eyes raised up from the rocky path
That I may have to climb between,
And fixed firm on God and the joys of Christ:
Keep my heart set on things unseen.

Since my Lord looks not on great earthly deeds,
But on who I am in Him,
Let me trust His grace for my daily walk:
He Who fills my cup to the brim
And Who walks with me all my earthly days.
He alone, when those days are done,
Will reveal what always He held in store
To make me what I shall become!

Rush! Rush! Rush!

Next time someone asks, "How are you?," try replying, "Busy!" I'll bet a Starbucks latte that the response will be, "That's great!" Granted, having a job is generally a good thing; and having plenty to do is usually better than sitting idle and depressed. On the other hand, North America has no shortage of people who are seriously depressed—or physically ill—because the strain of their busyness caught up with them before they "caught up" with their work.

"What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?" asked the writer of Ecclesiastes. "All things are wearisome, more than one can say.... I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (Ecc. 1:3, 8a, 14). The phrase "chasing after the wind" appears nine times in Ecclesiastes; seven of those times it is paired with the word "meaningless." That's an apt description of today's American dream: we always seem to be "chasing" something as elusive as the wind, and end up catching nothing we find meaningful. Worse, while in the wild the one being chased runs most frantically, in the "civilized" world the chasers are the ones afraid to slow down. And in the end, unceasing high speed can only lead to breakdown.

Martha in Luke 10:38-42 was dangerously close to breakdown when, "distracted by all the preparations that had to be made" (v. 40a), she unleashed a burst of frustration at Jesus for not assigning her sister assistant kitchen duty. Many of us, likewise, blame God for "giving us more work than we can handle" when in fact we have taken on burdens He never intended us to bear. As He said to Martha then, He says to us now, "You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one (Luke 10:41b-42a). Stop striving to fill every need you see; stop trying to do more than you can; put aside the idea that your value is in achievement. Sit down at My feet and listen to Me, and I will give you strength and guidance for the work I have for you."

It runs counter to all instinct and habit. But it's the only way to receive the better things God has ready for us.

Rush! Rush! Rush!
Through life we hurry along:
The busy soul is the lucky one,
And the high achievers strong.
Rush! Rush! Rush!
Each pause is an enemy:
We must run faster to catch the day
When from stress we will be free.

Wait! Wait! Wait!
What, really, do we achieve
Through constant drive to accomplish more?
What blessings do we receive?
Wait! Wait! Wait!
Give thought to your deeper needs:
Might you gain the world and lose your soul
Through the press of earthly deeds?

Stop! Stop! Stop!
Give ear to the Lord's soft voice:
"Your true significance is in Me;
You can in My peace rejoice."
Stop! Stop! Stop!
Sit down at the Savior's feet,
For our strain and stress bears bitter fruit,
But God's Holy Fruit is sweet.