Good News

Christians are always talking about the Good News, and about preaching it and sharing it. But as with anything, eventually terms wear out and names start to become meaningless. The “Good News” may be a term that many of my readers are familiar with but one that has perhaps lost the excitement it once had. And it may be a term that many of my readers have never heard before. So I am attempting to reframe—What is the Good News? What is being celebrated? What is God telling us?

He is telling us that finally, finally, the work He began at the creation of the world can continue. Finally, the gap between us and Him can be closed. Finally, He can redeem us and we can be part of His plan to make the world as it should be.

There are many things in this world that we look at and think, “This isn’t the way things should be.” There are wars and famines and floods, people dying, old and young alike, children sick, families going hungry, people living without shelter. Our thoughts are true: This isn’t how the world should be.

But this is what we choose, unwittingly or otherwise. We choose our way instead of God’s, demand our right to do what we want. We decide that we want to go our own way and be responsible to ourselves alone. And we’ve walked away from God. But there’s this “Good News”. What’s changed?

Jesus lived and died. That is a historical fact, but Christians differ from the rest of the world because we believe He didn’t stay dead. What an amazing thought that is. For someone to die and come back to life? Impossible. But what if we were to accept that this is true? What does that mean?

Jesus defeated death.

The biggest thing that feels wrong and wasteful to us has been reversed.

“The wages of sin is death,” so says the Bible. We have all done wrong things and therefore, we all die. “But,” it continues, “the gift of God is eternal life.” Jesus did nothing wrong. But He chose to die and to use His purity to take on the sins of the world. He had no debt to pay, so His death paid for the debts of us all. And now we are the good news. We are redeemed to God. We are now a part of His work to redeem the world and make it the way it is supposed to be.

It isn’t an easy step to take, I admit, for He asks us to give up everything that we have taken. He asks us to submit once again to Him, to again do things the way that He wants and to again live our lives according to His plan.

But through this, even though we may not see it in this lifetime, we can see and live in the world God intended for us to live in, with things the way God intended for them to be.

Following Jesus is difficult. But there is joy and hope and renewal. Redemption is the process of remaking. Something old made new again, something broken made whole. He asks all, He gives all.

This truly is Good News.

Faithfulness

I had a conversation several nights ago about something that has come up many times in the past. Divorce is a tricky issue. I’m not writing about that specifically, but it has led me on to another series of thoughts.

In Matthew 5:31-32, Jesus says,

It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.”

I find it interesting that Jesus doesn’t go on to specify what marital unfaithfulness is. But I think the definition of marital unfaithfulness has probably changed so much across culture and time. Back then, physical faithfulness would have been strictly maintained. Now, marrieds give away hugs, touches, dances, even occasionally kisses, but can still be considered maritally faithful. I think in our society today, there is a greater feeling of betrayal when it comes to emotional unfaithfulness.

But I think marital faithfulness is all-encompassing: physical, emotional, mental, verbal. Every way — every way — in which a couple interacts requires faithfulness to the other and faithfulness to the vows that were taken (i.e., to love, honour and protect). Is a woman being faithful, for example, when she belittles her husband in front of others or vice versa? There’s a difference between belittlement and teasing, make no mistake. Teasing is gently done and done in such a way so that husband and wife are (and know they are) on the same side and is quickly amended and repented of when either side feels wounded. Belittling, on the other hand, is when one party presents the other as insignificant, silly, ridiculous, foolish, detestable, et cetera, either directly to that person, or in front of others, with or without the presence of the person in question.

It is worth feeling convicted about this. Marriage is the single most powerful relationship a person can experience, outside of their relationship with God. You are never more vulnerable with another person than you are in the context of that relationship. Pretending for a moment that the audience I am addressing all believe as I do, in a marriage relationship, that person is the only one who will ever see you completely naked, physically and emotionally. Stripped of your masks, flaws and insecurities laid bare, you are trusting that the other person will embrace you and build you up, that they will encourage and love and be enthusiastic for you and the things you love and will be your trusted companion in working on those things you wish could be better about yourself. This requires truth and honesty from both partners, and more, faithfulness.

What I am trying to suggest is that marital unfaithfulness is not just the big, “I cheated” things. It is also the little digs at each other, chipping away at respect, jumping too easily to offense, carrying a joke too far, etc. Part of the vow of marriage is to protect. While it is protection of each other from the ways of the world, it is more than that. Your spouse or significant other wears armour when facing the world. They do not wear armour when facing you. Do you take advantage of their vulnerability in that circumstance? Or do you protect them? Are you being faithful to the partner you chose in the little things as well as the big?

Much risk

What is love without much risk?

So says the artist of song I am quite enjoying. For the curious few (or many, whichever way it is), I am sorry that I don’t know either the name of the artist or the song. I shall find it after I post this and perhaps place it in the comments. It is on a CD in our car, thus I listen to it quite often while driving without knowing what it is.

Anyhow, it got me thinking. She was singing of God and His love for us. It runs back to the old question of “why didn’t God just create us good and in love with Him and avoid all of this sin nonsense?” But I think the quote above really captures the essence of the answer to that question.

When you love someone — truly love them — and when you ask them to love you back, it is only love when they can say ‘no’. Imagine if this person didn’t have the option. It wouldn’t be very satisfying, would it, to know that they loved you only because they had to. When the person you love has the option to say ‘no’, it is a huge risk, for… what if they say ‘no’? Yet it is truly most satisfying this way, for imagine if they have the option to say ‘no’… but they say ‘yes’?

God risks so much everyday in loving us and asking us to love Him. But He does so because that is the kind of love He wants. He wants true love. He wants us to have the option to say ‘no’, but to tell Him ‘yes’ instead.

There is risk on our side, by telling Him ‘yes’, but I’ll get into that at another time (or perhaps in the comments?). For now, I just want to dwell on the beauty of that idea.

What is love without much risk?

God loves us so much and He has taken great risks to show us that He does. How beautiful and how deep is His love.

New Year’s Resolutions redux

On January 1st of this year, I posted a list of resolutions on my Blogger site. That post can be found here.

We are just under two months away from the new year and so I think it would be worthwhile to examine my resolutions and how (or even if) I have improved in the course of the year since making them. This is actually the first time I have gone back and looked over resolutions from the past. Other years I have made them, but they were usually on a looseleaf sheet of paper or buried in a journal or school notebook, and so I never found them again before the new year was upon us. Over the past month, I have stumbled across my New Year’s Resolutions post several times, and so I think it is important that I make some examination of it.

The reason I chose each resolution is listed in the original post. Here, I shall simply state the resolution and how I think I have or have not improved.

1. I will be more decisive.

Hmm. Well, as with anything else, it is a work in progress. But I have noticed that my conversation is moving in this direction. Rather than taking an “I don’t care, whatever” approach, I am more able to approve and forward a plan. I am also noticing a greater initiative taken in bringing plans to fruition. As well, I have become far more able to declare when I don’t approve a plan. In the past, it was often the case that I would shrug and say, “Well, whatever” if I really didn’t want to do something. And while that is sometimes the appropriate response, I am learning to be honest with my opinion and perspective, especially when the person I am talking with would genuinely like to know the truth behind where I am coming from. Unless I notice any serious changes that need to be made in the next two months, I think I can safely graduate this from the list. While it is something I need to keep working on, I think I can safely move my focus in the new year.

2. I will remember that physical activity helps with stress management.

I don’t think it has been a conscious decision, but I have adopted regular physical activity into my lifestyle. Let me modify that statement. I have adopted regular physical activity that I enjoy into my lifestyle. As you are probably completely aware, I have taken up swing dancing, something that I do at least twice a week. I attend a weekly dance and I have enrolled in weekly lessons. As I said, it wasn’t a purposeful move. My thought process wasn’t “I need physical activity to help with stress management”; it was more “I love dancing, how can I get more involved?”. As a result, I have noticed that my stress level is reduced. Granted, it probably helps that I have completed my undergrad degree, but there is more peace and more energy in my life now than before when the physical activity I chose was less purposeful and less enjoyable.

3. I will breathe Scripture.

I composed an email several nights ago and in the course of it, I did something I have not done in a very long time: I quoted Scripture. I unconsciously quoted Scripture. I mean, I knew it was from the Bible, but my thought process wasn’t, “Oh, I think a verse should go here, wait, let me find one.” No, it was something that had been on my mind and in my heart, and so it naturally came in the course of my writing.

This, however, is one area that I know I can continue improving on. I still do not spend enough time in Scripture. It is a lot more regular than it used to be, but I am not purposeful in it, and I do not dwell in it as I would like. I re-read emails, poetry and novels with a regularity that puts my Scripture reading to shame. I do not know it as I would like. This, I think, will be something I keep into the new year. But I would like to focus on it differently. I am not sure how, but I have two months to continue contemplating this.

4. I will find a stronger rein for my tongue.

Uh oh. Yea, FAIL. I haven’t been purposeful about this one at all. This I will keep on my list.

5. I will not be afraid to make mistakes.

Another fail.

It’s funny, I have a lot to say about the areas where I feel improvement, but not nearly as much in the areas where I haven’t improved as I would like to.

If anything, I have become more afraid of making mistakes. So, this will likely stay on the list.

6. I will choose to live joyfully and full of hope.

This is a hard-earned success, one that I think is still hesitant in its display. But I think it is very worth encouraging it to bloom. You can either choose to live clouded by despair and fear or you can choose to live guided by joy and hope. I am choosing the latter. This will probably stay on the list, but I am not sure in what form.

7. I will have fun.

Yay, big success. I have had a lot of fun this past year. I wrote in my original post,

There is much to be done, much to be excited for, much to plan and hope and dream.

And how right I was. This will probably stay on, not because I have failed, but because it is important to remember. It is easy to get caught up in all of the to-do’s and should-do’s, but it is really important to remember to have fun while doing them.

Stay tuned come January 2009 for a brand new list of resolutions, and I would encourage you to think of some yourself. I think there are always ways that we can improve and by writing them down, it does then beg an examination of them later on. If you choose to write them on a public forum, send me a link, and we can see how we all are doing in the months to come.

God bless!

Solitude

There is something very exquisite about silence. I alluded once before to this quote by Aldous Huxley:

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

I have just spent the day in the house, in fact almost constantly in the same room, with a very active 11-year-old. He is a dear. He also had a P.A. day today, and beyond finishing up the last bits of a couple of projects he has due this week, the day was spent in pure entertainment. He managed to keep himself entertained with various “quiet” activities for parts of it, but there were also parts where movies were watched and computer games were played, and the music and sound effects from both filled the room.
Our current house has one room that has the kitchen, eating area and TV/living room all within the same four walls. It is actually a lovely design. It is nice being able to have all of these areas interact.

However –

This next ties in with a post I attempted to write several nights ago. Unfortunately, when I was writing it, it was into the wee hours of the morning and was not nearly as coherent as I had hoped. –

there is something about silence, after a day that is full of noise, that is simply beyond compare.

The day is coming to a close. We haven’t begun supper yet (we had a late lunch), but I requested that the 11-year-old continue whatever activities he was planning on pursuing in his room. Then I spent an hour and a half cleaning the kitchen, doing the dishes and tidying the random bits of things that scattered themselves about the room while the 11-year-old was hard at work at projects and play. And now I am reclining in one of the armchairs in this room, listening to the dishwasher run and just marveling at the peace that has come from a silencing of the movies and video game sound effects.

It is rejuvenating.

It can be uncomfortable. In the course of writing this, I have been tempted several times to minimize it and pull up my various other online accounts instead, substituting visual noise for aural. But sometimes it is nice being able to turn off the distractions and to give yourself room to think.

What I wrote about several nights ago was the importance of solitude in our lives. We need other people a great deal, but I think we also need time to steal away, to sort through our thoughts, to centre ourselves, to pray.

In the Bible, Jesus was constantly surrounded by crowds, but he often sought times and places to be by himself, to meditate and reconnect with his Father. I think it is a good model.

Writing as a fresh graduate, I recall how easy it is to spend all of your waking hours with other people. Meals in the cafeteria or off-campus with friends, studying in groups, movie nights, dances, etc. It was often difficult to find time alone.

Something I wrote about in the doomed post from a few nights ago was the discomfort that comes with solitude. I had found a coffee shop in my University town that I quite liked, and in my third year, I regularly patronized it by myself with a book or notebook. While I appreciated my time there, I often found it uncomfortable. It was a place I was used to going to with others, and there were not many who went simply to seek solitude. Some were there on their own to study, but most of the patrons were in pairs or small groups.

It is important, though, to have time to examine your thoughts and your actions. It is valuable to carve out time to pray. It is wise to spend time focusing your thoughts and your heart on God. For me, anyway, I struggle most when I haven’t made time for solitude and silence in my life. Purposeful solitude, though it is often difficult, is a discipline that is worth developing.

Noteworthy Professors II: Professor John North

One of the most inspiring courses I ever took was Victorian Poetry with Professor John North. I transcribed more sound bytes in the margins of my notes for that class than I did for any other. This is a man who loves God and who loves poetry, two of the loves of my own life, and so to listen to him speak several times a week was an incredible gift.

I remember attempting to describe this course to my friends. Professor North is an older gentleman who has had many experiences and who has seen much in his life. His students are privileged to hear of his experiences in his classes, and we are even more privileged to be able to listen to the wisdom that he has gleaned from his years on earth. Attending his class was like entering his living room. He invited us in and began speaking, and though he spoke of poetry, he could not help but give us knowledge greater than simply what the poet was trying to say.

Poetry, he says, is a way for us to “read experiences that are like our own, that we can identify with, that affirm ourselves.”

We discussed some of my favourite poets in this class – Tennyson, Hopkins, Arnold, Browning – and through each step of the course, we could see the above-quoted theme carrying through. While discussing Tennyson’s In Memorium and explaining to us why this poem was so popular when first published, North said,

Tennyson explores grief and put into words for people for the first time their internal worlds and emotions.

In Memorium was a poem that Tennyson wrote over the course of twenty years as he mourned the loss of his best friend. We all have these experiences and these “internal worlds and emotions”, but most of us cannot put words to them. With this poem, Tennyson took something that was incredibly well-experienced, but very rarely expressed (that is, grief), and finally put it to words. Poetry touches the ineffable.

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

~Aldous Huxley

I would class poetry with music.

I found Professor North’s class to be an incredibly healing one. Through his class, he carried us into the very depths of the poem, often to the core of our souls, inviting us to examine what we found there, and to actually feel the emotions that we carried within us. It wasn’t that he was not content with a surface-level analysis of a poem; it was that remaining on the surface never even occurred to him. He is a man deeply in love with his wife, passionate about his God, and incredibly moved by the pieces he reads, and all of this came through in his lectures.

Poetry gives shape and a voice to our internal world; it affirms us, we are less alone.

The excitement in Hopkins is that his world makes sense. The problem is that oftentimes our world just doesn’t make sense. When the dark sonnets come, we can see that he has made sense in the non-sense. Despite the darkness, there is joy.

Poetry gives us an insight into other people’s hearts and minds, and into our own. It gives all of that shape, brings form out of chaos. We can understand what we never understood before, and through another’s writing, we realize it is true. It is satisfying both to have words for it, and to realize that someone else feels the way that we do. It takes the loneliness out of life.

It’s hard to fight with evil, but consider the consequence of not fighting with evil.

Evil cannot exist on its own; by definition, it is a perversion of good.

Even evil is under God’s authority.

[Poetry helps us to] accept the potential of the future, without rejecting the beauty of the past.

Poetry says far more than the poet knows he or she is saying.

Poetry is so powerful that it affects us to the core, even if we don’t know why.

We often only need to see something or hear something and we are transformed.

Be aware that you can’t study literature without being changed inside, in spite of yourself.

(the above all taken during Professor North’s Fall ‘07 Victorian Poetry class)

Zack and Maryse

This is easily one of my favourite swing dancing videos.

First, it’s Balboa, which is my newest fancy, second, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable song. And the couple looks like they are having so much fun together. I haven’t been able to figure out if it’s a routine or not. Obviously the couple has danced together and practiced all of the moves they did together, and probably danced to this song together… but I’m not sure. It doesn’t seem like a performance.

Anyway, I think another reason it looks fun is because he gives her ample room to play in the song (times 0:21, 0:43, 0:45, to name a few). I was reading an opinion on this on another dancer’s blog. I don’t really have any tricks in my repertoire beyond the basic swivel (and maybe a fake kick or two…), and as I’ve said about other blogs, I don’t necessarily agree with everything she’s saying, but I think I agree with the overall point she’s making. The dance is about both people on the floor. I heard a critique on a couple once in the past, and one of the critics raved about the woman’s ability to wait for her partner. There was one move (I can’t remember it exactly), where he spun her out and then did some trick on his own, and she had to wait for a couple of beats for his trick to finish before he turned back to her, and she did so, perfectly. It wasn’t even something I’d noticed before, but I guess that’s another thing to think about. The dance isn’t about being in motion all of the time, or pulling out moves to make it fun. The dance is about the two people on the floor, enjoying the music, the atmosphere and most importantly, each others’ company.

Anyway, just some thoughts, I guess. And if you want to watch the video again, check out the fabulous turns at ~1:04 and the unbelievable dip at ~2:06 . The dip is slightly less amazing, but slightly more realistic/copy-able when you realize what her left arm is doing.

Random thoughts on love

We have made an idol of love. Love can never fill the place of God, but it feels like it can because God is love. Love, however, is not God and that is where the issue lies. And our disappointment with love (because it doesn’t do in our lives what we need God to do) is the cause of so much pain. Love is not an active agent. It is a product of the combination of feeling, familiarity, attraction, dedication, choice, commitment, etc., but it cannot act. It is not independent or in possession of a self. Without something to experience, create or be love (ie, without God), it cannot exist. And yet we are turning to it, begging it to be active in our lives the way only God can.

What do you think?

Grooved pavement

The problem with being an English student and a writer is that you cannot help but see metaphors for your life in everyday experiences. Everything means something. Everything matters. Or maybe that has nothing to do with that and everything to do with my idealistic tendencies. Either way.

I was driving home from a friend’s birthday party last night (Happy Birthday, Sarah!). I tend to develop habits pretty quickly, and the one I’m talking about right now is how I drive to and from my University town. I used to always only drive country roads there and back. This summer, because I’ve been finding myself leaving my University town late at night (say 10 or 10:30), I tend to drive there using country roads, but back on the highway. Should something happen to my car, I guess, I’d prefer to be stranded on the side of a well-traveled highway, rather than on some back road somewhere that few cars travel.

So anyway, a couple of months ago, I was in town for an old roommate’s wedding (which was delightful, by the way). It was very late by the time I left, so naturally, I chose the highway to head home. After being on the highway for probably an hour and a bit, I noticed a sign on the side of the road: “Grooved Pavement”. I didn’t really know what it meant, and in fact, didn’t pay it too much mind until I was suddenly traveling over this grooved pavement. I guess they were in process of fixing up the road. The tires rubbing over this grooved surface made a load loud whir, and the whole car vibrated as it passed over each section of grooved pavement. It was a frustrating experience. I was tired, and this I found to be consternating. And it didn’t stop. I would travel over a section of pavement and once I was back on the old surface, I would breathe a sigh of relief and settle in again, only to be jarred when the car hit another patch. The journey was like this for probably 20 minutes, but it felt much longer.

Since that wedding, I’ve been back in my University town several times for different events, and coming home has always been the same: entering the highway, forgetting about the grooved pavement until the sign and then feeling frustration for that part of the journey.

Finally, this last trip, I think I had gotten used to it. I was heading home and I saw the sign still up, and I mentally sighed. Oh well, I thought. I was used to it by now. I’d just have to go through that frustration for a little bit and then forget about it for the rest of the journey.

I cannot even describe the shock it was when I drove over the dark, blissfully smooth new pavement that had been placed over the grooves in the highway since the last time I drove it. I didn’t believe it at first. I thought maybe that segment of new pavement had always been there. But as the journey continued, and the road switched back and forth from old pavement to new, I was convinced. They had finally re-paved the grooved segments of the highway. And not only that, the old pavement that used to be a relief when there was grooving, was now noticeably bumpy and uncomfortable compared to the new pavement. It was incredible.

The hardships in our life feel like that most of the time. When they first hit us, they are surprising and frustrating and anxiety-inducing. We can’t understand why they’re there. Perhaps at first, we can believe that they are there to fix what was wrong in the first place. But as the days, weeks, months go by, we find relief in what has been left alone. This area of my life is fraught with difficulty, but that area is ever as it always was—ah, relief.

And every time we encounter those difficulties, it hurts and baffles us. Why? we ask. Was it not fine the way it was? And eventually we drift into complacency. Not a happy complacency, but a dull one. Yes, this is hard, we acknowledge, but I am so tired. We learn how to survive, how to get through the hardships while remaining intact emotionally, even if the only way to do so is to dull ourselves to the pain.

And we believe that the pain will always be there. That part of my life is always going to be this way, always grooved and difficult, ruined.

But that isn’t God’s plan for our lives.

I don’t know the purpose for the grooving of the highway, but I understand that it is part of the process of repaving. It is necessary, even though it is inconvenient, frustrating, etc. And even though the grooving seems to be there indefinitely, eventually new pavement is laid. The plan is never to leave the grooving there, but the grooving is an essential part of making the road anew.

That’s the way it is for the pain in our life. The plan is never to leave the pain there, but it is an essential part of refining us. God must tear down the parts of our life that He wants to remake in order to rebuild us the way He wants for us to be. I think we look at those areas, just after He has started working on them, as having been just fine. “You could have left them alone, you know?” we cry bitterly. “They were fine just the way they were.” But at the end of it all, the difference is incredible. The new is better than the broken, obviously, but it is also even better than the old. But to get from old to new, we must go through the process of brokenness. But the result is incredible. It is better than we could have imagined.

Keep traveling, I say. He will make all things new, in His time.

But…

When we pray, we pray in one of two ways and these ways are set apart by the very subtle difference in our placement of the word “but”.

I think the purpose of prayer (as I mentioned in my last post) is primarily for surrender. Something is really really really important to us, but we surrender it into the hands of the One who is in charge, Sovereign of the Universe (that would be God), and that requires us to surrender our will. We have these plans and desires in mind, but through prayer, we trust God’s plans. I think that in prayer, God wants us to tell him what we want (Matthew 7:9-11, for example), but we need to be willing to submit to God’s will. And that is where the placement of “but” is so important.

We pray in one of two ways:

1. “Lord, your will be done, but…”; or
2. “… but, Lord, your will be done.”

As you can see, both phrases contain the same words, the same letters and almost the same order. However, the first example is a self-focused example; the second is a God-focused example. In the first prayer, we say something like, “Lord, I just pray that your will would be done, but, please let me get this new job.” There is nothing inherently wrong with this, the problem is with underlying meaning.

To tangent a little before we return, let’s look at the second example. This second kind is the kind of prayer that Jesus prayed. In Gethsemane, before he was crucified, Jesus spent the night in passionate prayer. And in verse 42, we see exactly this second prayer. “Lord, if it is possible, please take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.”

And these are the important elements in prayer: my will, God’s will, and whose will I consider to be more important. See, the problem with the first kind of prayer is that we say, “Yes God, of course, your will be done, unless your will isn’t going along with mine.” The whole implication of that sample prayer is that I will be completely happy with God’s will as long as I get the job. “May your will be done, God, unless it interferes with mine.” This, I think, is the kind of prayer we utter most often as Christians. We have plans for our own life, desires, wishes, hopes, dreams, and we say, “God, please have your way in my life, as long as you don’t mess up my plans. Have your way in my life, unless you intend to take away this one thing I desire most, or this thing that I’ve worked so hard to achieve.” We say that God can have everything he wants, unless he decides to take something that is really important to us. The problem with that is that we are very much children when it comes to this kind of thing. We see an object that strikes our fancy and so we capture it and hold it for as long as the beauty remains. But because we don’t understand the beauty and tend to want to capture it (as children do), we tend to ruin it more than appreciate it. We see a bubble floating by and we reach out to touch it, but it pops. We spy a butterfly and cup it between our fingers, but then we touch its wings and it cannot fly. We hold a frog in a jar where it cannot get water, and a grasshopper in a container where it cannot get food. A flower is beautiful growing in the grass, but even more so in our hands; yet when we cut it, it dies.

Imagine, though, this beauty when we release it, when we let God have control. God sees the bubble floating by and holds out a wand to catch it then hands the wand to us. Perhaps we cannot touch the bubble, but we still get to hold and admire it. The butterfly floats lazily by, and God beckons it to his finger. Then he holds his finger towards us, and the butterfly crawls onto our arms. It tickles, and we are mesmerized by the colour, but we listen to him and don’t touch its wings. Maybe now it will fly away eventually, but it will stay as long as God wants it to. And even if it flies away, our memory will be of the vivid, colour-filled life on our arms, not the wasted beauty in our hands. The frog God builds a pond for, the grasshopper, a garden. The flower grows tall and vibrant in the bed God cultivates for it. And none of these tasks does he keep us from. He gives us an active hand in all of them, provided we are willing to protect the beauty of it, to sacrifice our own pleasure for the sake of that which is under our care.

But our sacrifice is nothing compared to Jesus’. His prayer is the one we ought to echo. Tired and beaten down, well aware of what he was to face the next day, Jesus prayed. “Please God,” he prayed, “take this task away from me. If it is possible, please let this pass from me. But, not my will, but yours be done.” And that is the critical order. “Here God,” we say in this instance. “Here are all of my hopes, dreams, cares and concerns, loves, trials, difficulties, joys, achievements, awards, talents, abilities, friends, family, etc. This is what I desire, this is what I care about most, this is what I am concerned about, but God, regardless of what I think or want, may your will be done in all of this.” This is the harder prayer to pray. It is so easy to tell God we will trust him as long as he does whatever we want him to. It is so much harder to trust him knowing full well that he could completely upset our carefully laid plans in a moment.

The humbling factor and the comfort in that knowledge, though, is that God’s plans are always better than ours. It is painful to have this one thing you’ve prized so highly taken away from you, but it is humbling when God begins to show you all of the reasons he took it away. And it is a comfort to see, even if only in the shadows, how God is working in the absence of this prize.

God is the centre, God is in control. And he always knows what he’s doing (and does it so much better than we ever could), even when it doesn’t feel like it. God’s got it covered, kids. Never forget that.

May His will, not ours, be done.