Relax

I'd like to write about the very funny aspects of living where we do now, having a four year old neighbor who is at our house so much that his own family refers to us as his family, an across the street neighbor who thinks I am a computer genius because I've helped him get online to fill out a job application and then the regularly occurring oddities within our own family's daily conversations that have become so commonplace they no longer seem unusual.  Humor is so good and, I think, what distinguishes us from drones...or keeps us from becoming similarly lifeless.  

Instead, however, I think I need to write about how the Gospel is alive even when my brain isn't, even when no "compelling" topics are racing through my thoughts, even when my emotional state is neither low nor high...just "chill".

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die, 

   a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

 a time to kill and a time to heal, 

   a time to tear down and a time to build, 

 a time to weep and a time to laugh, 

   a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 

 a time to search and a time to give up, 

   a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

 a time to tear and a time to mend, 

   a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

 a time to love and a time to hate, 

   a time for war and a time for peace. Eccl.3:1-8

There is a tendency to feel closer to God in times of distress, when my need for help outside of myself is so clear and tangible.  Or, there is an exhilaration in times of celebration and victory, where need is not as great but God's meeting of that need is in clear view.  But what of the time that is neither high nor low, distressing nor exhilarating, sprinting nor sleeping?  Is there a season for that?

A frequently proffered thought is that "if you (or your marriage or your business or your ministry, etc.) aren't under attack, you might want to be concerned that it isn't doing great things for God." This sentiment comes in different packages, but it is hard to be in evangelical circles long without hearing it.  In other words, every suffering or hurt feeling or betrayal is evidence of Satan's attack which is evidence that the one under attack is doing heroic things for God that are threatening to Satan.  It is an enticing proposition, particularly for someone with my personality  who likes the idea of leading a charge, being Bravehart for God's Kingdom, and so on.  But ahh, once again, it leaves out Jesus.

The problem with this admonition is that it is the wrong starting point.  We don't choose a course of action to be the most threatening to Satan, we don't take pride in acrimonious marriage, and we aren't called to isolation from community and relationships as a badge of courage.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Romans 12:9-18

Jesus is the threat to Satan's short-sighted delusions of grandeur, but even more than that, He has completed the work left unfinished by the first Adam and is not merely the threat, but the defeat.  It is finished.  There is nothing to add to that work, even as it is being worked out in each of His children and all of creation is being restored.  My noble dreams of being a hero for the faith lose sight of the fact that the story already has a hero.


So what does this have to do with seasons of rest, seasons of "blah" and even season of feeling "on the bench" or maybe even on the D.L.?  I can simmer down and not panic about it.  I'm not getting behind in some spiritual hierarchy or corporate ladder.  My "employment" is secure for life and the top position in the company is already permanently filled, and both are good.


"But there is work to be done!"  cries my inner, white-knuckled Pharisee.  Yes, there is more than we know.  But guess who is in charge of completing the good work that He has begun?  Guess who it is that does not leave the orphans fatherless nor the widows forsaken?  What very good news that since it is God who wills and acts in me for His good purposes, it is impossible for the work He intends to complete to be neglected.  So, I can relax.  There will be a season for feeling high and another for feeling low, for wearing out my body and a time for pampering it.  But today, I can sit in that middle place in peace because it is in the person and work of Jesus that I trust and not my well-intentioned ideas of replacing Him with my own.


Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”  The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone,  but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Romans 4:19-24