February 22 2015

We carry the light.

I would not have people believe that a tragedy is a defeat.  I would not have people think that lost things cannot be recovered.  I would not have people feel that the enemy controls the day, though there are tragedies, things do get lost, and though there is an adversary.  Bad things happen.  Sometimes as consequences, sometimes as accidents, sometimes as attacks, but never apart from the sight of God.  The adversary has a will.  We have wills.  God has a will.  God is not an assistant, the adversary is not a boss, and we ought not treat life as we treat work – where we put time in on jobs we don’t really want in the hope that we can retire one day.  Yet, we do just that.  So when bad things happen we are not prepared.  Because we have not taken ourselves seriously (I mean ALL of our self), we are slow to respond, confused, and quick to blame others or our circumstances.

The enemy is not in control.  Our lives are not like leaves in a stream – unless we have given up.  We are the drivers of our lives.  We are to blame for our despair if we are not constantly praying.  We are to blame when we look out onto a world and see no hope because we haven’t developed spiritual sight.  The enemy cannot be blamed when we have failed to take the Gospel seriously.  The enemy is not to blame for the way we choose to spend our time.  The enemy must not be blamed when we always, always, choose the path of least resistance.

Yet, the enemy is near.  He loves it when we talk of the perils of the flesh but then do nothing to discipline ourselves.  He loves to turn “Repent” into “Behave.”  More than most, he loves to whisper that we exist apart from a Standard, that commands are more like suggestions, and that our choices should be guided by our own inner knowledge and experience.

He is, of course, partially correct.

However, the Resurrection wasn’t for the part, but the whole.

Those who have really decided that they actually believe in Resurrection and follow Christ’s teachings have the compass and light within them.  They learned what “Repent” means.  They know they don’t exist apart from God.  They practice the commandments and therefore only need a gentle suggestion to do right.

In other words, they carry the light.  When bad things happen they know that the crucible can refine us.  When we get lost, they know that there is no place where God is not.  When we are attacked, they know that prayer and contemplation call an unseen force to our aid.  When the good seems to be losing ground, they point to their soul and say to the enemy, “This far you shall come and no further.”  They carry the light.

Let us not look for miracles, lest we be like those that Jesus spoke of who would not believe even if someone from the dead returned to speak to them.

When bad things happen, let us not look for signs that God hears us and will come help us.  He gave us Resurrection.  He gave us fire from ash, water from stone, heartbeats from clay.  He gave us the Fourth Man.  Let us look to what abundance is around us before we ask for more.  For what is our faith if all we do is say how little we have?  Faith is trusting that which has proven itself trustworthy.

Bad things happen, but Christ lives.  We get lost, but God is with us.  Tragedy comes, but Christ is risen.  We lift our eyes to the promise, looking over that which besets us.

We carry the light.

“Behold, I make all things new.”

February 22 2015

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