This life, in this world, with this God Part II

Ok, so I feel compelled to expand on my last post, to address the question of why this life that is such a joy and a privilege, often looks and feels like the opposite.

Its a real question, and a legitimate one. We see the psalmists asking God 'How long O Lord?' 'Will you hide your face from me forever?' and 'Why are you downcast, O my soul?'. Not the questions of someone who is finding life to be a breeze. And these truly are acceptable questions, ones God wants us to ask of Him, albeit with a humility that accepts that God is bigger and wiser than us, and knows what's for the best.

So, when might we expect to face these questions? I suggest one or two may be:

• At times of loss and grief.
• When we experience injustice at the hands of others.
• When things turn out differently for one person than another, despite the circumstances being similar in each case.

Why does a God who loves me allow me to struggle with the same illness, even though every night I BEG Him to help, heal and change me? Why do I still sin when His Spirit in me is able to change my heart so that I am more like Christ? Why does God heal some people miraculously of their illnesses, and others are left to die?

I don't know. It seems such a cop out to answer with the words of the writer of Deuteronomy 'The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law'. But this is the infallible word of the same God who is bigger and wiser than me.

I have a friend who asks every morning 'Is the gospel good news for me today?'. The answer is obvious. In the face of suffering, pain, loss, and frustration with ourself and the world, we inevitably ask the question 'Where is God and what on earth is he up to?' But the answer to the former is always a resounding 'YES!!!'

We should be careful with our questions...asking of God what is going on should be done with a desire to serve him and submit to him, rather than a defiant heart that shakes its fist in his face when things are hard. This is the same God who sent His son to die for you, that you may have both an eternal blessing in life with Christ after death, as well as the countless blessings of a restored relationship with him in the present. God hasn't chosen to put the whole world right just yet, but we do see glimpses of what the world will be like when he does. He promises us a new creation, where 'He will wipe all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall their be any pain' - what an amaing hope for his people who experience grief and trials now, but trust in the cross of Christ as the guarantee of their future.

We can, and must find joy from reminding ourselves that our God knows what he is doing. He does love us, as demonstrated by the sacrifice of his perfect son for the sins of the people at the hands of whom he was killed. That even while I was (and am) still sinning, Jesus has died for me. And being raised to life and seated with God above, I too, through faith in him, am already seated with Christ on high and will be raised to eternal life after I die.

God asks us to trust him. 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight'. So lets be honest with one another when we don't understand what is happening to us and how it can possibly be under the control of a powerful and loving God, but lets also remind each other of the cross, a place of compelling, unchangeable comfort and a stern reminder of God's gracious love, glorious salvation, and awesome power.

Keep rejoicing!

Rachel.

This life, in this world, with this God.

On my way to work the other day I had a kind of epiphany, a moment of clarity, a realisation of something I just don't seem to have truly understood. God made me. Every fibre of my being is made by him and belongs to him. Everything on this earth is his. So what's my purpose in life? To glorify him. It seems so obvious now. Made by God, for His purposes, I have no rights in his regard, no claims to stake, nothing to demand as my own.

So what does this mean? Well, I might feel extremely vulnerable. Our creator is a God who is powerful enough to create the Universe, who has named all of the stars in the sky, and knows the thoughts of my heart. To him I owe my existence and life (however brief it may be) and by him I am owed nothing. So he is both able and within his rights to do whatever he pleases with me. Its my duty to honour him as he is my creator, and he could make this a depressing, long suffering mightily unpleasant experience. Indeed, he could keep me in misery forever. And yet, he hasn't chosen this.

How pleasant it is to feel the sun shine on my face, to see lambs gambolling in the fields in spring, to look up at a sky rife with clouds and forks of lightning, to hear claps of thunder against a background of torrential rain, to taste a ripe and juicy strawberry from the garden of a friend, to smell freshly ground coffee, or the fragrance of a rose in bloom.

God has made the world a delightful place to live, where I hear friends laugh together, enjoy a kiss and a cuddle with someone I love, receive generosity and hospitality from friends who consider it a joy to be kind to me, and what's more, ask nothing in return. In this world I experience love in so many contexts and the joy it brings is all gift, all grace, all free from a God who owes me nothing and yet seeks out ways to bless.

When I am tempted to grumble (its too hot, its too hard, I'm too tired) I'd do well to remember the reason I have been made, and the privilege and joy it is to live this life, in this world, with this God.

Rejoice Always,

Rachel.

Is it always possible to be kind?

Always possible to be kind?

When faced with the quote "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible" - The Dali Lama - I instinctively asked the person who'd quoted it "If it's always possible to be kind, why has no one ever achieved it yet?"

In response he asked me the following three questions, which I will attempt to answer in turn.

i)How do you know it's always possible?

Well if by this question we mean 'What is the metric by which you will decide if it is always possible?', then I intend to get right to the heart of the issue - our conscience. Our conscience acts as a moral compass guiding us to know what is right and wrong - on the simplest level, this means we know that if we see someone in pain for example, we desire to help them, and if someone wrongs us we desire them to be punished and make amends. Along with this conscience we have the free will to do as we choose - we can choose in any given circumstance to do what we know to be right (kind) or wrong (unkind).

ii) How do you define 'kind'?

Well the astute reader will realise that the answer given above (i) assumes kindness to be right and unkindness to be wrong, but I think it is important that you realise that I don't mean kind as in always taking the soft option. Often the kindest thing to do for others is hurtful to them in the short term, but far from harming them will do them good in the long term. Take the correction of a child by his parent...The parent loves the child and wants to protect him from harming himself, so tells him off for playing with matches. The child is distressed and cries. Is this the soft option? No! But is it kind? Yes - the motivation is love, and because the parent loves the child, they are not scared to hurt the boys feelings in the short term to teach him that fire and matches are dangerous and prevent him from injury in the long term. Kindness is loving people and seeking the best for them regardless of the cost to yourself.

iii) And how would we know if anyone has?

There is no scientific way of proving whether anyone has actually achieved this - I am not omnipresent in space or time, nor do I know the hearts of men! But I can speak for myself and admit that I am most certainly not always kind! Far from it, when I examine my own heart I find a cesspit of selfishness and a desire for self promotion. I am not always kind to people, and not always because I want to see their downfall...more often because I value their opinion so highly, want to feel good about myself and impress others and God, that I no longer put their interests first. I want people to like and respect me, and care more about achieving that end, than I do about helping them.

I can also speak for the people around me and say honestly that no one I have ever met (which is admittedly a very small number of all of the people who have ever lived) has always been kind. Don't get me wrong, I have some fantastic friends, a loving family, a great Church and an incredibly gracious and generous boyfriend to top it off. But none of them are always kind. The ways in which they are selfish and put their own interests before others are a matter for their own conscience, but they cannot claim such innocence as this, and furthermore I don't believe they would. It's a claim so arrogant and wholly unbelievable that it would be ludicrous and pointless to make.

But I believe that there are in fact 2 nuanced questions we must ask ourselves on this matter:

Is it always possible to be kind? Well yes, I think it is. In every situation we choose how we respond. We choose whether to love others, or ourselves, and we are responsible for the choice we make.

Is it possible to always be kind? I think not - we are a broken people. The Bible says 'We all like sheep have gone astray'. Our hearts have a natural inclination to put ourselves first, which is why our default is selfishness and we must learn and practice hard at being generous and outward looking. We can't always be kind, because we will choose unkindness instead, when we follow our self centred human nature. For sure we will choose kindness too - but not every time. Reflect on your own life a moment and I'm sure it won't take long for you to see your own unkindness. How long ago since you were last unkind to someone? Honestly?

Memory verses

Inspired by reading 'The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing by C.J. Mahaney (Hardcover - Oct 12, 2002)' a friend and I have decided to learn a Bible verse each week. This week's is taken from Romans 8: 31-34

"If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."

Keep rejoicing!

About this blog.

Da, da da da da da da Da!!!

My first ever blog post, on my first ever blog...thanks for taking the time to read it. I have recently started to feel that some sort of record of what's going on with me, what I'm learning, how I'm growing, what I find difficult and things I don't understand will be useful. Why? So that I can look at what God is doing in my life and that of those around me and be encouraged that trusting Him every day is not only helpful, but essential. So why publish it? Well I hope as God's grace is at work in me you will be encouraged, challenged and thankful. I also hope you might share your thoughts and ideas, challenges and experiences so that I won't think I know all the answers all the time.
So what can you expect to find on this here blog? To be perfectly honest I'm not sure yet, but I think mostly it will be about Jesus because he's super duper.
So welcome, and please don't be shy. If you have an opinion, share it, but be gracious to me and to others and consider who might read this before you post.

Always Rejoice!
Rachel.