Seeing Through The Smoke

8 years have gone by since I last posted here (brilliant reflection on Van Halen, YMCA restrooms, and holy calling). A lot changed. Supposed to get you out of here now in < 2 minutes. Nah. Stay as long as you want.

If you browse through old musings, note that I like music or a clip to inspire, extend thought, or help readers get to the end without dozing off. This link goes with today. When I Look At The World

Watch before or after you read. Maybe during. Up to you. Thanks for checking in.

Smoke Makes Things Hard To See

   The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,  ² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, ³  and provide for those who grieve in Zion: to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Isaiah 61

This is the proclamation of the coming Kingdom of God. We (His church) get to carry this anointing forward. Jesus claimed it as His own and placed it on His apostles and church when He left Earth. Until He returns, it is our privilege/calling/task to be oaks of righteousness, displays of God’s splendor. What an incredible picture! It radiates images of a better, more perfect (?) Eden that awaits when we take our place as its builders and junior partners of its Creator.

This passage is also the base scripture for Ancient Path/La Senda Antigua, the burgeoning church plant network in Cuba which (by some miraculous movement of the Spirit’s anointing) Tonni & I are charged with connecting to churches and friends all over the USA.

There is something at this point in my life which is bugging me. My head has it all correct. I know the gates of hell won’t prevail against the church. I’ve read the end of the story and see how it all comes together. I get it. All of it. Truly, it reads to me. But really, an oak of righteousness? Now? Me? Renewer, rebuilder, restorer?

There was a time not so far back when I related a bit better to that role, but at the moment, I’m not feeling like much of a Kingdom builder. I’m much more a pre-dropped jar of clay or a demolition man. I can tear anything up. I mean, it’s simply the craziest thing in the world to feel so very broken inside and yet find yourself truly called to help be part of helping others be renewed, restored, and rebuilt.

Then I look at the diseased and divided and hateful graceless world and nation in which we find ourselves (not a momentary situation) and I make the mistake of reading ALL the dime store preachers on social media (yea, talking to you) who have none of the necessary gifting but all of the vacuous words, along with endless quantities of profound, exceedingly meaningful and helpful memes (Ugh!) and I think, “Why bother? What’s the point? What could I possibly have to offer? How does anything cut through the noise?”. I decided I'd write to myself and invite anyone who wants to to play the voyeur or maybe find a space where they can feel lost and found at the same time along with me. 

Here is what must lay hold of in moments like this, have to recall so I can see ahead with hope for me and all the confounded and beloved children of the world. Isaiah (God’s mouthpiece of moment. Had gifting and words) shouted out the promise of freedom and release, beauty, joy, and praise when God’s people were at their lowest. He had the audacity to speak this kind of hope to a people who were far from home, cast out and suffering, broken by the weight of human sin and our seemingly unending need to lord control over and belittle people who don’t appear to be like us.

When the smoke cloud was thickest and people most lost, when all familiar order evaporated and confusion reigned, this precious word of better than ever things ahead cut through and declared not a vague aspiration, rather the surety that God’s promises are being and will be fulfilled.

So, when you look at the world or when looking at the world forces you to look into yourself and you just can’t stand what you see, be encouraged. It is only after brokenness is brought into the light and recognized for what it is that we can begin to be renewed, rebuilt, and restored and thus be enabled (even as our personal 3R's remain works in progress) to be the instruments by which that same miraculous renovation can happen in the world around us. I’m going to do my best to see the Kingdom breaking through in me and in everyone else when I look at the world.

OK. More to come. 8 years is a lot of back log.

Be Blessed.