Author: Wick

There was a time we could only dream of walking through the mall together without looking like a small army.  The juggernaut-double-stroller-tank we have pushed around for a long time now, has finally begun to be unnecessary for our average trip to the stores.

Yet there we were, walking as a family, when we realized our youngest was walking/sometimes jogging to catch up….with her hands firmly planted deep in her pockets.  We couldn’t help but smile, pretending not to notice, because as any parent knows – as soon as you look/try to take a picture, they usually stop doing that cute thing they’ve been doing all along. 🙂

A couple days later, as we were enjoying a sabbath day relaxing and wrestling around on the ground, she comes over with a pillow “Here daddy!” she yells, as she slides it under my head.  Next, she grabs a small blanket off the couch and comes over to lay it across me, before patting my head and kissing the side of my face.  I look up at her, and her face transforms into a giant smile that could melt the heart of a mighty Philistine.

These are the “terrible two’s” that everyone warned us about?

I realize, there are also moments of extreme defiance and testing, but over all – our experience with all 3 girls is that the age of 2 is a pretty great year.  A year that severely puts to shame and disproves any assumed sort of “terrible”-ness.  In fact, if we could have an extra year of “2” for each of our kids, I’d sign up easily.

So it continues to make me smile when someone finds out she’s 2, and immediately reveals their reflex-thought, “Oooooh, terrible two’s, eh?”

We make a lot of assumptions about the people around us on a regular basis.  The church is not immune to this, by any means.  We hear a fact or two about someone we’ve shared a pew with, and automatically we know who they are during the other 167 hours a week.  We know they struggle with their faith.  We know they’re a solid family with no troubles to be lifted up in prayer.  We know…..

Fortunately, we have reminders in scripture of what we actually do know.  We know all have sinned, and fall short of God’s glory.  We know that anyone who is in Christ has been made a New Creation.  We have reasons each week, to both be in prayer for – and stand side by side with – anyone else who would declare Christ as Lord.

May this bring us a surprising new experience of worship, as we are surrounded by people who are silently suffering.  By people who are so freshly being transformed, they may not “fit the mold” yet.  After all, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Ancient ruins called out.
A world that had fallen, was desperately calling.

A collective wave, building across generations
Creation upon creations, growing need but losing patience.

Losing the ability to continue spinning wheels, needing a God who heals.
A God who steals the despair of His people, and gives a new name.

A new claim as Priests, and with Justice they feast
God’s faithfulness and covenant coming like supernatural yeast.

And raising Joy from the soil, supplying the oil
For lamps that will burn with a blazing new light.

In the Lord we delight, we share in his “Right”.
So long wandering in silence, we’ve been given new voice
and it’s first words we hear shouted – “REJOICE!”

Isaiah 61:4-11
“They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed.” I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. “

A while back, we were watching an episode of “The Berenstein Bears”.  It was an episode full of irony, as the focus was on Mama Bear asking the family to not watch anything on their television for an amount of time.  They were forced to do creative things, read, explore, imagine, and play pretend.  In fact, the one who seemed to struggle with it most was Papa Bear.  My heart went out to him, as Mama Bear had horrible timing….it was HOCKEY PLAYOFFS!  He handled it much better than I may have.  🙂

One of the first games the kids decided to play, was to create a television out of cardboard.  Catching the irony here?  As we sat and laughed at the scene, my mind was (is) always wandering  in the land of “How can this speak to our faith journey?”, and this one smacked us right in the Savior.

How often do we find ourselves living for “success” with Jesus in the same way the world lives for “success”?  A 12-step program, a “next level” or “title” we seek to attain, the “blessings” of money and influence, the nebulous emotion known as “happiness” at the center of all we seek, etc.

Because the truth is, God didn’t send His son to earth, have Him die, and experience the resurrection ahead of all things – simply to have us build another television set.  These things have all happened to completely trash the idea and concept of “television set faith”.  (hoping what’s in my brain is coming out in words here)  Life is not a Mad Lib where God has erased the blanks, only to fill in the words with “Jesus”, “Christian”, and “Love”.

No, what has happened here is much more dramatic and transformational.  Jesus Christ HAS BEEN declared Lord over all things.  We have been given the opportunity and resource to live as transformed citizens, declaring His Lordship.  Not in way that seeks to maximize marketing potential, and makes sure the word “Christian” always has above an 80% approval rating and plenty in savings.  But in a way that loves all people/God’s creation sacrificially.  That puts others needs before our own.  That lives in such a way that the world looks at us and scratches their head, saying “These people do not make sense.  You can’t continue down that road and survive financially or relationally.”

God has not called us to unplug from the world and create a God-sourced version of the same worldly pursuits.  God calls us to be completely reborn as New Creations, and citizens of His Kingdom.  What does that look like?  Check the Beatitudes for a pretty good start…:)  They’re in Matthew chapter 5..