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| The Call
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| Hope In A Fallen World
Failure. Pain. Sin.
What if instead of responding in anger and hurt to these things, we saw them as evidence of God's grace on us? What if we looked at it from God's perspective: the (future) fulfillment of His desire to heal us? What if we instead saw our beautiful Savior still loving us, knowing that He will heal this broken place? How else do you explain that beauty that God plans on giving us? He will clothe us in robes of righteousness; He will heal us (Isaiah 61). We need to look at this fallen, sinful world from this new perspective, allowing it to become a much more beautiful reality. When you do this you will start to understand the greatness, the love, and the beauty of God. We must continue on with this hope in mind.
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| Love and War
Love. I desire it so much, and I don't feel it. Every once in a while I catch a glimpse, but to truly know love is what I long for- and at the same time I am afraid of it. Love means sacrifice. What if the sacrifice I make is not returned. Fear. Oh how selfish I am. Do I not know Yahweh. What about His character, his sacrifice? Maybe He was afraid to love- I certainly have failed to love Him back.
I am a lover of peace- I hate the idea of war. I have almost successfully ignored that overarching theme of life- and yet it's impossible to ignore because it is all pervasive. It is the truth. I must embrace it and fight, though I don't want to. With war comes pain and suffering. With war comes despair. Can't I run away from it? War is life. Yet life is supposed to be so much more. Why must we wait for the end? Why must we fight till the end? I am so tired, and I have just begun. I cling to hope. I must have faith in the One who is to terribly great to know and understand.
May I have faith in the goodness and beauty and truth of God. May I hope for the end I know this war will bring. And may I learn to love.
Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
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| Blue-Gray Life
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| Communication and Heaven
"Shalom is God's symphony, and the orchestra is gathering to rehearse on earth what we will play eternally in heaven...we can be thankful that God started the symphony and invites us to take our seats in the orchestra. Our Creator has equipped us with the gospel and has given us the necessary gifts to play our parts with each other as cocreators of culture" (Quentin Schultze).
In his book Communicating For Life, Schultze explores the importance of communication. He believes that the correct use of communication (to love both God and our neighbor) establishes communities of shalom, and that communication is by nature spiritual- it is a form of worship. We need to be using communication to "cocreate" a culture of shalom. Obviously his book goes into much more depth, but I would encourage you to think about this. Ask yourself if you are using communication to bring about shalom- a community of justice and peace.
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