Remember Your word to Your servant. You have given me hope through it. This is my comfort in my affliction. Your promise has given me life. The arrogant constantly ridicule me, but I do not turn away from Your instruction. Lord, I remember Your judgments from long ago and find comfort. Rage seizes me because of the wicked who reject Your instruction. Your statutes are the theme of my song during my earthly life. Yahweh, I remember Your Name in the night, and I obey Your instruction. This is my practice: I obey Your precepts. (Verses 49-56)
Italics, mine
What has been the theme of your life? The nexus of your story? What defines your sojourning on this earth? Theme: subject, topic, subject matter, thesis, argument, text, burden, thread, motif, keynote. What fragrance will your life leave on the path you walked?
My friend, Mary, called me from the grocery store on Sunday. "Were you just in Albertson's?" she asked.
"No, why?" was my response.
"It smelled like you on the wine aisle...in a good way. I smelled your perfume."
Hmm. That's what I want for my theme. That people will be able to tell where I've been...and in a good way. In His wake, Jesus left people different than He found them. Healed, restored, redeemed, loved, forgiven, hopeful, cleansed and ultimately, saved! The phrase in italics above is literally the song in the house of my sojourning. The song my soul sings. Me. The new tabernacle of His Presence. What's being played there today? Last night I was up for a while. It rained. An anomaly here in Southern California. The noise awakened me, then I noticed the song going on in my spirit. Playing in the temple even as I slept. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us. That we should become the sons of God...that we should become the sons of God. It dawns on me now that is the theme of my sojourning. My adoption. The wonder of it. The fact that God would give entrance into His family to anyone who calls on His name.
Affliction challenges our stories. It's often the antagonist to our moving forward. The stilling of our song. But if the theme of our lives is Jesus and His grace, our song must still be sung. Pain can't define us. Heartache crush us. Confusion can't stop the plot line from its victorious climax. He is our story! He is our song. Only by faith in the many promises of God do we find comfort. Our lives suspended between Heaven and Earth just as Jesus was in His own affliction. "I will never leave you or forsake you." Because Jesus was forsaken for us in the bigger story that is our salvation, we can fulfill our destinies in Him with hope.
Our perfume stinks to some. Smells like death. The martyrs were crushed because there are those who would eradicate the odor of faith. The comfort in this injustice is that God always wins. Always triumphs over the enemy. Even our death is victory. As I write this there are Christians all over the world struggling to keep the song of their sojourn alive in prisons or in covert places of worship. Faith in God and His precepts keep them going. Knowing God. Letting Him live large in our jars of clay. And understanding the theme of our lives isn't our own personal happiness, prosperity, power or prestige. It's higher. Eternal. And the more transcendent our faith the more furious the enemy becomes.
I'd like to think of our lives this way. We are travelers sent from our Father into an alien land. People there don't know Him except for our meeting them on the foreign soil. We've been equipped for the travel. Our Father speaks to us on our interior GPS all the time, guiding and encouraging the sometimes dangerous, often frustrating, trek. Sometimes people give us a place to lay our heads, sometimes people throw us away. What matters is that we know Whose we are and where we are ultimately headed. Driven by purpose, sustained by His Word, we practice, step by step, doing what He tells us to do, as God leads us over, under and through, or ends our journey when we fall into His arms at home. The trip gets sweaty, there are many dips and bumps in the road, but the underlying song is the same: I know my Redeemer lives! May I gather many aimless travelers on my way. May Jesus always be the song of my journey and the theme of my life.
Italics, mine
What has been the theme of your life? The nexus of your story? What defines your sojourning on this earth? Theme: subject, topic, subject matter, thesis, argument, text, burden, thread, motif, keynote. What fragrance will your life leave on the path you walked?
My friend, Mary, called me from the grocery store on Sunday. "Were you just in Albertson's?" she asked.
"No, why?" was my response.
"It smelled like you on the wine aisle...in a good way. I smelled your perfume."
Hmm. That's what I want for my theme. That people will be able to tell where I've been...and in a good way. In His wake, Jesus left people different than He found them. Healed, restored, redeemed, loved, forgiven, hopeful, cleansed and ultimately, saved! The phrase in italics above is literally the song in the house of my sojourning. The song my soul sings. Me. The new tabernacle of His Presence. What's being played there today? Last night I was up for a while. It rained. An anomaly here in Southern California. The noise awakened me, then I noticed the song going on in my spirit. Playing in the temple even as I slept. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us. That we should become the sons of God...that we should become the sons of God. It dawns on me now that is the theme of my sojourning. My adoption. The wonder of it. The fact that God would give entrance into His family to anyone who calls on His name.
Affliction challenges our stories. It's often the antagonist to our moving forward. The stilling of our song. But if the theme of our lives is Jesus and His grace, our song must still be sung. Pain can't define us. Heartache crush us. Confusion can't stop the plot line from its victorious climax. He is our story! He is our song. Only by faith in the many promises of God do we find comfort. Our lives suspended between Heaven and Earth just as Jesus was in His own affliction. "I will never leave you or forsake you." Because Jesus was forsaken for us in the bigger story that is our salvation, we can fulfill our destinies in Him with hope.
Our perfume stinks to some. Smells like death. The martyrs were crushed because there are those who would eradicate the odor of faith. The comfort in this injustice is that God always wins. Always triumphs over the enemy. Even our death is victory. As I write this there are Christians all over the world struggling to keep the song of their sojourn alive in prisons or in covert places of worship. Faith in God and His precepts keep them going. Knowing God. Letting Him live large in our jars of clay. And understanding the theme of our lives isn't our own personal happiness, prosperity, power or prestige. It's higher. Eternal. And the more transcendent our faith the more furious the enemy becomes.
I'd like to think of our lives this way. We are travelers sent from our Father into an alien land. People there don't know Him except for our meeting them on the foreign soil. We've been equipped for the travel. Our Father speaks to us on our interior GPS all the time, guiding and encouraging the sometimes dangerous, often frustrating, trek. Sometimes people give us a place to lay our heads, sometimes people throw us away. What matters is that we know Whose we are and where we are ultimately headed. Driven by purpose, sustained by His Word, we practice, step by step, doing what He tells us to do, as God leads us over, under and through, or ends our journey when we fall into His arms at home. The trip gets sweaty, there are many dips and bumps in the road, but the underlying song is the same: I know my Redeemer lives! May I gather many aimless travelers on my way. May Jesus always be the song of my journey and the theme of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment