Good ______________ (Fill in the blank) !
This last week and a half has been mad full of some high octane butt-kicking moments that have really inspired and fired me up. Quite frankly, some things have been said and handled in a way that I personally feel have been done so in a less-than-godly manner. For whatever reason though (perhaps the encouragement and affirming moments which have edified the work I'm involved in) I have been filled with a confidence not in myself, but in the God who I seek to serve with my life. It has forced me to deal head on with the people and the politics which call into question my job--something I have found quite hard to bring myself to do in the past. Why? Because its uncomfortable and its messy... The truth is most people don't want to deal with the uncomfortable and the messy stuff that cannot be seperated from life in this broken, salvation-starved world.One such moment this week was a conversation I had with someone who I consider a close friend. Someone who I have had the joy of seeing grow into spiritual maturity marked by honest transparency about struggles with their faith and with their life... at least with me. As the two of us had a hard discussion concerning decisions and obedience towards Christ and the Grace of God which covers every unrighteous corner of our lives, our hearts, and our minds, I came to the realization that most of the time the answers to our tough questions and hard decisions are not easy. I don't think they're easily answered and often they are not easy to discern.
Unfortunately, many people (and probably more unfortunately, many Christians) too often want to reduce the complexity of life and the mystery of the Gospel to a pain-numbing bumper sticker answer packaged in pretty paper and shiny bows. The bottom line is that life is hard! Life is hard and we are broken creatures in need of the very rescuing which Jesus offers us through his work on the Cross and through the continuing work of His Holy Spirit in us.
Honestly, sometimes, even as a follower of Jesus Christ, I don't have an answer. My wife and I have been struggling with decisions in our family life for the past two years. We still don't know what God's will for us is or what the "godly decision" is in our longing to start a family. All we have is Christ. All we can do is cling to Him, grow in our knowledge of Him and His love for us, pray, pray, pray, and pray some more. Sometimes we are convicted by the Holy Spirit and we know what to do... sometimes we don't feel anything.
The question we must continually ask ourselves is this: Jesus, what do YOU want me to do? Where do YOU want me to go? The answer is sometimes unclear... other times its as clear a day. But its certainly not always pretty and its definitely not always easy. Yet Jesus holds us through the pain and suffers with us.
