NORMAL LIFE - IN THE FIRE!

2 Kings 23:31-25:30; Acts 22:17-23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 18:13

“King Nebuchadnezzar took all of Jerusalem captive, including all the commanders and the best of the soldiers, craftsmen, and artisans—10,000 in all. Only the poorest people were left in the land.”

“I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem, for the people here won’t accept your testimony about me.’”

“The Lord said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your Father. Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession.”

“Spouting off before listening to the facts
is both shameful and foolish.”

Certainty and security are precious commodities. There’s no point denying what we know to be true. Asked to paint a picture of the perfect life, very few of us would be found drawing nomads, ecological changes, exiles or wars. But what if we were asked to honestly sketch a normal life? Would not our pictures necessarily look very different (again, being honest)? “Normal” is not a synonym for “nice” any more than “difficult” is the same as “wrong.” In fact, those of us who have lived long to appreciate the difference recognize that, most of the time, the only way to “right” or “good” is through “difficult.” So when did we start defining a difficult life as failure? Doing better than our parents is not a divine right. Doing all things through Christ is. But few of us know it, and even less of us claim it. It’s no wonder, then, when we separate ourselves from Jesus, that we gravitate toward “easy,” and develop attitudes of disappointed entitlement. We cannot stand the heat. That’s exactly why, sometimes, the middle of a fire is exactly where we most need to be.

One of the most beautiful people it has ever been my privilege to know is a life-long exile from the land of comfortable. His body is warped and misshapen. His only locomotion comes via a wheelchair. He has struggled with a variety of serious health issues and related economic problems his entire life. Oh, but what a life! The man’s internal beauty is radiant; his hugely illogical optimism outrageously contagious; and he has never met a stranger or an enemy. One could easily conclude he has made helping others see their own beauty his life’s work. How humbling it is to be encouraged by one such as this! No matter the pain – and it is constant, and excruciating – his first words to any new arrival are “How are YOU, my friend?” and by God, he expects a meaningful answer. I always tried to avoid him when I was feeling blue or disappointed. I didn’t want to lie to one so genuine, but I couldn’t tell the truth without feeling very small, petty and selfish. That, I think, remains the true genius of his ministry: who is better qualified to hold the mirror by which we might judge the state of our own lives? But this man’s gospel goes far beyond encouraging positive self-evaluation. He is totally, passionately dedicated to bringing his hope-filled message of Christ’s sustaining power to anyone willing to listen. He looks for chances to live beyond his capacity, and is not shy about publicizing the reason: it gives him the only real comfort he knows to see Christ work through him to encourage and strengthen others. Weak and physically helpless as he is, he never loses sight of what it means to be truly empowered, and he relies on and realizes Christ’s living strength better than anyone I’ve ever met. Letting the Spirit work through him is his ministry, and I would be hard pressed to name any other more perfectly carried out.

The Babylonian Captivity was an awful time for the Hebrew race. Paul’s abandonment of his own people, the Jerusalem Jews, against his will (but fully in accord with his God’s) was extraordinarily traumatic. Nothing about either situation would be described as nice or normal. But on the other hand, both situations prepared others for Christ. As long as we are consumed by the need to grab hold of security, we will never grasp the hand of God extended to save us or to grow us. The only true “normal” is change. The truly successful are always those who embrace and adapt to change by uniting themselves with others. They do not cling uselessly to some imagined stability that does not exist, and never really has existed in this world. They do not look horizontally at all for comfort or satisfaction. They look up.

Fire can kill. But fire also purifies. Which it does in a given case depends exclusively on the character of the thing or person exposed to its heat. Wood burns, becoming black, sooty and ugly. Gold becomes refined, fluid, more adaptable and even better able to withstand pressure.  People aren’t so different: most all of us need our dross burned off. Some come away calloused and brittle with little left to show for it. Others come away from the process transformed into something entirely new and even more beautiful. The Holy Spirit gives us that option. It is, however, an option that requires a long-term perspective in a quick fix world.