Waiting

This week has been a rather eventful and interesting week. I had many delightful conversations with old friends, medium friends, and people (who I would now consider friends) whom I literally just met moments before delving into meaningful chatter. But there was one concept, which has been prevailing, which through relay was yet again brought to my attention, the simple yet profound theme of waiting.

We live busy lives, ones within which we scurry from thing to thing and place to place leaving no time for conviction or resolution, no time for growth or maturation. Wanting to be cuddled by the business of our schedules and our egos stroked by the feeling of being needed. But we have not learned to wait.

Imagine sitting in a room with an old vinyl album spinning in the background, a gentile breeze billowing the curtains while you read a beloved book sipping on tea. The sun is just waning gleaming in through the window causing the whole room to dance with the breeze as the tree limbs sway and the songs of birds intertwine with the music in the background. This is the image in my mind when I think of waiting.

When the hustle and bustle of life is slowed to a stop as you wait. But societally we are not wonderful waiters. We want our goodies and we want them now.

But there are some things, some ideas, some studies, which require all your heart and mind which must not be waylaid by the pursuit of a love or the trappings of life, some things which demand all your attention because they directly concern your love for God. These things become paramount in the life of the believer, because a better view of God is what they are being called to.

For it is a calling of, “Further up and further in.” (C.S. Lewis) which we are called, and thus must never be mistaken for the call of constant and steady and most certainly never the call of waning and stopping. Further up and further in to the God who has called us, who judges us, who loves us, who is indeed our King. This is the beauty of putting things on hold and waiting to take them up again.

The Lost Somethings

We’ve lost something. Once we stood in awe of our father’s immeasurable strength. Once our fingers wrapped around only one of our parent’s fingers. Once we had nothing to regret and there was always a bigger bed to run to when the monsters in the closet were too scary to handle alone. Simplicity was our theme and our hearts were whole.

There was an innocence that defined us, that caused our imaginations to sore higher than the clouds and further than Pluto. When catching fireflies on a summer’s night was more fascinating than all the passions we now possess. When our lunches were packed in brown paper bags and we always hoped we had something yummy to trade. When lying in the grass staring at the clouds was better than TV.

But we’ve lost something. Things have changed.

Now we stand in awe of nothing. Now our fingers no longer hold anything but our pride. Now we have massive regrets and we must face our monsters on our own. Now complexity is our theme and our hearts are shattered.

The innocence that once was our definition is only a distant memory we’ll never be able to return to.

But these things we've lost will not be forgotten nor will they be left in the wilderness. Things will be made new and we'll see our Savior's face.

So whether you’re 21 or 79 you’re still growing up and by the sheer grace of God we are told, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old is gone the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17)”

The end of The END

I finished reading Jonathan Edwards' "The End for Which God Created the World" yesterday and I finished my note taking on it today. This was a six month process. I tell you the time frame not to inspire awe in the slowness of my reading, but to, with feeling, tell you there is much to be gleaned from this work.

Edwards in a very systematic approach biblically answers the age old question of, "What is the purpose of life?" Though this is not the question I desired answered. The question I began with back in December was, "What is my calling?" or more frankly, "Am I called to ministry?" And in more ways than one was my question answered.

For through the beginning of the book as Edwards reasonably shows the logic behind God's end in his creating, it is evident the same call is placed on all who believe. However it did not stop there. He continued on to discuss the matter in terms of what Scripture says, answering every nuance of the argument according to what the Bible says. The discourse being replete with Scripture pointing to this one beautiful end.

"From what has been observed in the last section, it appears, if the whole of what is said relating to this affair be duly weighed, and one part compared with another, we shall have reason to think that the design of the Spirit of God is not to represent God's ultimate end as manifold but as ONE... For it appears, that all that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God's works, is included in that one phrase, the glory of God; which is the name by which the ultimate end of God's words is most commonly called in Scripture; and seems most aptly to signify the thing."

May this be an encouragement to read Theology. Not to read to get a book under your belt, but to read to learn, to answer questions, to grow. To take notes over a treaties and see your heart swell and be moved to new different heights. Leaving the vacuous behind so as to be matured in life and faith. To see God for who he is as revealed in Scripture and see yourself for who you are in comparison. To refund the glory which is emanated from God which indeed is the end for which he created the world.