Close enough? #2
Sorry folks, I have been away for the weekend and my parent's Dial-Up connection failed me :o(
"I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Ps 16:8
Big things happen in our lives; not all the time but the one guarantee that we have in life is that sometimes things hit us hard. It could be massive disaster, a personal tragedy or individual battle. Whatever they are seem to approach our lives without us noticing and with the resolute gaze the Martians were described as having in the opening pages of HG Wells 'War Of The Worlds'.
Our only hope for survival is not in our strength of character or our resourcefulness, it is a decision. Our survival is reliant upon a choice we make before, during and after these events [continually in fact, throughout our lives]. It is our decision to remain close to God. This is evident in the words that David once penned in this Psalm.
When I was growing up [in my parent's church] I had to friends; Tim and Martyn. Neither of them were like me and in fact they probably weren't much like each other either, but despite this we became good friends. We were examples to each other and we also encouraged each other; not always directly but just by the way in which we each lived our lives.
Then something happened which continues to baffle me to this day; they died.
Martyn was a charismatic character and after spending much time resisting God he completely surrendered to Him. In fact more so than anyone else I have known. In no time at all he had forgotten his university degree that he had planned upon and began to do various compassionate mission work among African orphanages. This work consumed him.
Tim was the eldest of an impressive family which always seemed to overshadow him, but as he left university he began to find himself and God's purpose for him; he was now engaged to his childhood sweetheart and had begun to make a name for himself in business, where he would no doubt shine for Christ in doing so.
One summer they decided to take a holiday of a lifetime in Australia. They drove around the county seeing all the sights they could. But it was here, on the other side of the world from their home, that they were involved in a fatal car accident.
You never expect peers to suddenly vanish; you can never be prepared for this sort of departure, especially when you see God's plans for their lives beginning to flourish. I still don't understand why any of this happened. All I can do is set the Lord before me because when my eyes are upon him, rather than the elusive answers to all my questions, I find myself unshakable.
This, however, is not a default setting that we have as Christians.
We must choose to involve this type of intimacy in our lives, we must seek it and maintain it. My mum recently visited some childhood friends and was distraught to find them saying that they had lost their faith because of circumstances over the previous years that they could not understand. They could not understand why God had allowed certain things. Their vision had been consumed by a cloud of unanswered questions rather than with God Himself. In 'The Horse and His Boy’' CS Lewis reminds us that we may not always understand why things happen but does not absolve us of the need for an intimacy with God in our lives.
Intimacy is costly but it comforts us; not always with the answers we desire but with the strength of knowing the One who knows the beginning from the end.
Big things happen in our lives; not all the time but the one guarantee that we have in life is that sometimes things hit us hard. It could be massive disaster, a personal tragedy or individual battle. Whatever they are seem to approach our lives without us noticing and with the resolute gaze the Martians were described as having in the opening pages of HG Wells 'War Of The Worlds'.Our only hope for survival is not in our strength of character or our resourcefulness, it is a decision. Our survival is reliant upon a choice we make before, during and after these events [continually in fact, throughout our lives]. It is our decision to remain close to God. This is evident in the words that David once penned in this Psalm.
When I was growing up [in my parent's church] I had to friends; Tim and Martyn. Neither of them were like me and in fact they probably weren't much like each other either, but despite this we became good friends. We were examples to each other and we also encouraged each other; not always directly but just by the way in which we each lived our lives.
Then something happened which continues to baffle me to this day; they died.
Martyn was a charismatic character and after spending much time resisting God he completely surrendered to Him. In fact more so than anyone else I have known. In no time at all he had forgotten his university degree that he had planned upon and began to do various compassionate mission work among African orphanages. This work consumed him.
Tim was the eldest of an impressive family which always seemed to overshadow him, but as he left university he began to find himself and God's purpose for him; he was now engaged to his childhood sweetheart and had begun to make a name for himself in business, where he would no doubt shine for Christ in doing so.
One summer they decided to take a holiday of a lifetime in Australia. They drove around the county seeing all the sights they could. But it was here, on the other side of the world from their home, that they were involved in a fatal car accident.
You never expect peers to suddenly vanish; you can never be prepared for this sort of departure, especially when you see God's plans for their lives beginning to flourish. I still don't understand why any of this happened. All I can do is set the Lord before me because when my eyes are upon him, rather than the elusive answers to all my questions, I find myself unshakable.
This, however, is not a default setting that we have as Christians.We must choose to involve this type of intimacy in our lives, we must seek it and maintain it. My mum recently visited some childhood friends and was distraught to find them saying that they had lost their faith because of circumstances over the previous years that they could not understand. They could not understand why God had allowed certain things. Their vision had been consumed by a cloud of unanswered questions rather than with God Himself. In 'The Horse and His Boy’' CS Lewis reminds us that we may not always understand why things happen but does not absolve us of the need for an intimacy with God in our lives.
Intimacy is costly but it comforts us; not always with the answers we desire but with the strength of knowing the One who knows the beginning from the end.
posted by Andrew at 9:39 pm
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