Like the tornado that struck Kansas, when Dorothy was taken to Oz, the world seems to be spinning so fast, we can’t catch up with the ever-changing headlines.
Mandates, regulations, statistics, people’s positions. It’s like a love/hate relationship. We are drawn fully to the mayhem, but at the same time repelled from it.
Everything that can be shaken is being shaken. (Hebrews 12:27)
The world is spinning faster than we can justify it. Even the most intellectual and sound minds are wondering what is happening.
Worse yet, the world demands our voices. Our voice on someone else’s position, stance, understanding about who, what, why and when this chaos started happening.
The offended demand sympathy, reconciliation, acts and service from other people. As if control of any kind ever produces anything good.
- The apathetic are pulled into arguments.
- The hidden are demanded to emerge from their closets.
- The loud are plummeted with opinions and positions assaulting them, in the name of bringing unity or reconciliation.
And yet, I see this trend. This trend of the whole world trying to fix eachother; mend, iron out and “correct” the positions of one another.
We are all trying to play God; condemning, judging and demanding others to bow to our own particular brand of thinking, position or personal narrative.
Yet, I wonder if God is looking down on us wondering, how did we ever get so lost?
We quote, “Jesus goes after the one lost sheep” (Luke 15:1-7), pointing to people or the forgotten in our societies.
But, what if the one lost sheep is US? What if the wandering and wondering, the one grazing and led by their own understanding…
Isn’t somebody else? It is the person in the mirror?
And yet, I wonder why we so fear the uncomfortable? The uncertainty? The questions?
Do we rise up like steel anytime our positions are challenged?
Do we point fingers arrogantly, wise in our own eyes, fooled as “the elect”, thinking we have all the answers? (Matt. 24:24)
And what if the uncomfortable wasn’t for us to rise up and give answers, play god or protect ourselves with flaming darts or dictations?
What if this whole wind-whirling, world-changing, unsettled dust storm, blinding us with flecks of other people’s opinions, is really just a wake up call, revealing what it is we have been clinging to?
What if the parable of the storms coming down, rain and wind plummeting our houses, wasn’t just some song we sang in Sunday School? (Matt. 7:24-27)
What if this blizzard is an alert, challenging us all to see what we each are standing on? Is it sand? Will we come smashing down? Or are we on the Rock?
And what if the uncomfortable isn’t something we run from? The dialogue of race and government over-reach? The topic of hate and politics, not curse words we fear or hiding behind “pat” answers from?
What if the whole world is in flames, so that we might look to the One who can solely, truly save us?
When a boat is in a storm, what does it do? It let’s down the anchor, ensuring the boat is fastened to something solid.
It gives slack. Space. Excess to wean and wave. The boat doesn’t stop shifting in the rain, but it is guaranteed to remain in place because it clings to a solid surface underneath?
Where are our anchors of faith?
Where are our own roots, anchored deep, mentioned in Jesus parable of the seed and the sower? (Matt. 12)
- If we aren’t rooted we will drown.
- If we aren’t rooted, the birds will come and snatch away our blessing.
- If we aren’t rooted, our professions of knowledge are shallow and petty, thoughtless and offensive.
Church, let’s rise up and do better. Let’s rise up and confess our faith in Jesus, not just in words, but also in action.
Let’s be different.
Everyone who professes faith, let’s stop being part of the problem. Let’s stop reeling fro the tensions of this world and root ourselves deeper in Jesus?
- Peter wasn’t content, or he wouldn’t have left his business.
- Mary wasn’t at peace, that’s why she abandoned her profession as a prostitute, for Jesus.
- Peter was blind from persecution, that’s the reason he needed a healer.
What if our dicontentment isn’t a curse, but a gift? Our discomfort, a reminder of how our hope cannot be in this world. Our only solid foudnation is Jesus.
So, let’s stop fearing the uncomfortable. People’s differences in ideas, opinions, or persecution.
Let’s start putting our hope in the One that anchors us in the storm, in a God who put his hand up in the rocking boat and said, “Peace. Be still”.
Jesus takes away all fear and laid to rest His disciples worries.
Nothing is too hard for Him.
Nothing gives us greater hope than knowing this world is not our home. Real rest comes when we cling to the Shepherd who pursues us unrelently.
Thankfully, the end of the book says, “Jesus alone will be victories”.
His peace and purposes, joy and love will reign in our hearts like nothing in this world could ever satisfy.
Let’s stop looking for heaven on earth. Some utopic existence. Some calm from our external storms.
The Anchor of our Souls, the One who conquered sin and death has never left and will never fail us. (Heb. 13:5)
Jesus alone lays to rest our every worry and fear.
Every other thought is futile. Every other attempt at telling and projecting, demanding and commanding, only makes this world messier.
We need His peace, Him alone to lead us.
So, let’s not fear being uncomfortable and instead trust, God is in this storm, using all things to draw us to Himself.
Tweet ThisHe is the Cornerstone that’s immoveable, the refuge we can all cling to. He is the Rock which we can hide in, the wing that covers us in this craziness.
He is the hope of our promise….
When we are flung through the sky, like Dorothy, landing in some land, that looks nothing like Jesus intended…
And sin makes us all self-serving saviors…
There is only one King that must lead us. He didn’t rise up and fight, but layed down His life willing, all for the sake of love.
And Jesus pursues us, all of us…Regardless of our political affiliation or the color of our skin.
And at the end of the day, when hope fades, may our eyes turn solely to Him.
