Lives lived inside out

Here we are at the start of another year. Are you hopeful or fearful? Probably a mixture of both. As a Christian, I believe it is God’s common grace and mercy which has preserved each of us so far. I use the adjective ‘common’ here in the sense that it is something shared equally by all alike.

Jesus said that God’s wide distribution of his goodness is given to all people and is evident in that he causes his sun to shine and rain to fall on bad people and good people alike. Some who are personally having a hard time of it may dispute this view. Nevertheless, isn’t God’s general grace and mercy evident in the fact that for most of the time, most people know the provision of sufficient food, clothing, shelter and health? After all, it is because this is the normal way of life that we feel aggrieved when these blessings come under threat or are lost.

But life is more than caring for our outward bodies and the environment in which we live. We each have an inner life which is expressed by our outer life. The natural tendency is for us to concentrate on the outward because that’s what other people see of us and we see of them. Jesus, however, likens our lives to a cup: ‘clean out the inside of the cup and the outside will be clean also’, he says.

When Jesus fed the multitudes, set people free from what bound them and healed the sick, he was demonstrating the generosity of God as referred to above. These were all outward signs of what he can do for us inwardly; he can clean the inside of the cup so to speak. He says that he will feed our souls, set us free to live in a new way, give us a renewed mindset and bring us home to God.

Unlike the common blessings of life, these inward, or spiritual, blessings from Jesus don’t come automatically but, like the sunshine and the rain, they are freely given. To receive what Jesus has for us, whether we think of ourselves as a good or bad person, means turning ourselves over to him with a child-like attitude of trust.

The Christian message is like a double-edged sword

As a Christian author, you’d expect me to bring a message of hope as we move into the year 2022. The Christian message, however, is like a double-edged sword. Take the person of Jesus most seriously and you will have cause for hope; don’t and your position remains ultimately hopeless. As Mary held the infant Jesus in her arms, she was told, ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many…’

Jesus had come as a light for the benefit of all peoples. He came to save us from all our hopelessness by offering to reconcile us to God, the God from whom we are estranged.

If the past 21 months have taught us anything, it is that we humans are not in control of our destiny. Jesus, on the other hand, was in control of his destiny - his earthly life, his death and his rising from the dead. He calls us to place our own destiny in his hands because, unlike other leaders, powers and those with degrees of authority, Jesus has the very authority of God himself and is willing to exercise it for our good.

In a letter to young believers in Turkey, just a few years after the Christian church began, Paul the apostle wrote, ‘…remember that previously you were separated from Jesus, excluded from God’s people and without hope and without God in the world. But now in Jesus Christ, you who once were far away have been brought near’ (Ephesians 2v12-13, my paraphrase). To whom will you be looking for hope in 2022?

The hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote:

O God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Be Thou our guard while troubles last,

And our eternal home.

Deep roots

When I think of spring, I think flowers; when of autumn, I think trees.

The Bible often uses trees to teach spiritual truth, more so I think than it does flowers. For example: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes… and never fails to bear fruit."

The Japanese have a technique called Bonsai, whereby trees are grown in miniature form. I believe that this is done by tying up the tap root and thus forcing the tree to live off the surface roots. The result is a stunted tree.

As this particular autumn ends, I wonder how established are our roots spiritually? Our conversations may be an indicator, Jesus saying that what our hearts are full of comes out in what we say. We are often comfortable conversing at a social level: our jobs, family, holidays, or perhaps, education, and even politics. We do seem uncomfortable when it comes to considering what is morally right or wrong; death; why we are here at all, in fact anything religious.

As in the Bible passage above, God encourages us to send our roots down deep into Him, that we might find sustenance even in the times of drought.

The alternative is, contrary to what God wants for us, that we will become stunted and malformed people as we continue to live at surface level.

A year ago, COVID-19 was forcibly presenting us with the deeper questions of life. There was talk of life re-evaluation and of a different way of living post-COVID-19. With the lifting of most restrictions in the summer, have we just slipped back into the old ways called ‘normal’? If, this winter, we go into another drought of ‘normality’ due to a surge in COVID-19, will our spiritual roots be deep enough to draw on the life-giving spiritual water that God offers?

Jesus says, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me…streams of living water will flow from within him."

May we, like a healthy tree, find the life-giving nourishment we need.