joy.

Isaiah 35:5-8 “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.”

There is this discussion on holiness, and holy living. A response to God, a transformation God works in our hearts, a way of living that proclaims Jesus as Lord and no other. A Spirit-sourced life bringing thing, from which we draw our identities and toward which we lean our lives.

There is sometimes the unspoken assumption that things will be completely different when God completes what has begun. Indeed things will be entirely different. But what will remain is the way of Holiness we catch mere glimpses of today. And not just “present”, but celebrated and traveled by God’s people. It won’t be stumbled on accidentally, as seen in the scripture above. It will be “for him who walks that way” literally.

We have joy that this “way of walking” that we are learning, is not temporary. It is not a way of existing we train ourselves toward, in order to “earn” eternity with God, or to “prove” we can make the cut, or that we’re sincere enough, etc. We learn this way of walking, because it is the way we will walk when Heaven and Earth are joined as one, and God is poured out – transforming the very nature of everything. We are given the Holy Spirit to enable us to walk today in the way we will walk forever.

May that give us joy, as the decisions we make and our life is transformed…sometimes in ways that seem uncomfortable in the moment. We know it’s not about this moment, or even tomorrow. It is about the way we will be existing forever in the presence. May we live in a way that invites others to join in walking a life responding to God. A life that joins Peter on the water. That joins John and Paul in their cells. That joins the disciples in welcoming the resurrected Christ, and receiving His Spirit that transforms us and begins something that will never end…