For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer. -- Isaiah 54:7-8
I have been struggling to get back in a groove and mostly
losing. I had to travel last week for
work which is always disruptive to me. I
like my routine. It bugs me that my old habits have been broken up and that I have to settle into
some new ones.
When Jesus was on the cross, He cried out asking why He had
been forsaken. In this He quotes Psalm
22:1 – “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” The words from our verse in Isaiah might be
thought of as the Father’s response to the Son’s cry. It does almost seem like a play at times, a
great and grand, truly epic presentation across time and space.
I do not always know my lines or hit my mark. Interestingly, as an aside, the New Testament
Greek work translated as “sin” is transliterated as hamartia. From Wikipedia: In tragedy, hamartia is commonly understood to refer to the
protagonist’s error or flaw that leads to a chain of plot actions culminating
in a reversal from their good fortune to bad. What qualifies as the error or
flaw can include an error resulting from ignorance, an error of judgment, a
flaw in character, or sin.
As with all good stories, the failures and falls of the
protagonist are not final. There may be
that moment when it seems as though God must turn away from us. We may find ourselves, for a brief space of
time, in darkness, confused and bereft of hope, but this is the pivotal scene,
the point at which we make the decision to give up and let the antagonist win
or call out to God, give up only hope in ourselves and rise above the temporal
tragedies in which our sins have trapped us.
Christ offers us a path we may follow through the darkness. By going the way of selflessness, He will lead
us out into the light of a new day. The
tragedies will be turned to triumphs.
All our losses will be gains. The
storybook ending will be that we really will live happily ever after.
3 comments:
Hey Mush, If you write it, I'll take a look. For me, I know a large part is the time of year but also the zeitgeist. Anyhow, I just feel like hiding and lurking these days.
"I like my routine. It bugs me that my old habits have been broken up and that I have to settle into some new ones."
I hear ya.
Yes, I don't think I could last long in a place where it was winter all the time. Thankfully, spring is drawing near. (Though it is currently snowing outside my window.)
Ah well, it ain't faith if you don't keep it.
I command youz guys: UNLURK!
We're trying.
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