Anchor of Hope
Jesus, Our Foundation
“Life is a short time… in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment… Behind every smile, there is a tear. In every embrace, there is loneliness. In every friendship, distance.”
These are sobering words to a recovering imposter, which I fully admit to being. I spent the first several years of my Christian life in fellowship with many pretenders, believers who would not or could not accept the truth of the statement you just read by Nouwen. The perceived truth of many believers is that Jesus came, lived and died, and lives now to provide a comfortable, relatively pain free life in this present world. The problem we face in this thinking, is that Jesus himself endured, even embraced, great pain and suffering in the midst of joyful expectations that He was not alone in all his human experiences.
In many ways our weakness is the very thing God desires in us, then He can reveal His awesome wisdom and strength to us for our growth and healing, and through us for the sake of others. Jesus fleshed out Love by emptying himself, giving everything he had away so that others would benefit. Jesus lived out a principle that would read like this if spoken: What I would have you possess is more valuable than all you are fearful of losing.Can that possibly be true for us in this breakneck culture we live in today,owning and yet possessing nothing?
We live in a world filled with fears of losing what we have spent so much of our lives trying to obtain; a solid marriage, relationships that really matter, job status, prestige, retirement security, a magnetic personality, and likely even God’s approval for the way we have achieved spiritual maturity. These good things, needed accouterments for our lives, but if we count on them to get us through our comfortable lifestyles at the exclusion of God and His way, then we are of all people living miserable, dissatisfied and destitute lives. “For this world as we know it will soon pass away” and it is only the Son who can actually set us free by breaking the bonds we create with this world and the things in it.Allow God’s truth to occupy your attention above everything else in this life and you will not regret it.
It is God who does every good thing that I seem to do. A thousand times, I have experienced a deep anger from which I,in my own strength,could not overcome or find release. I am unable to curve all my bad habits, subdue my astounding levels of pride and judgment, or acknowledge God in every breath and step of my day. Wonder of wonders, as God alone continues to snatch me from myself and turnme toward himself in His Son Jesus to reveal to my heart a truth that carries me through each day; “It is finished…”I am relieved.May your heart and mind be encouraged today and also at rest as you too, by this eternal truth from our Savior’s lips, reach your heart. Rest and be at peace in your soul for it is finishedand you need not pretend to get it all right. Embrace all of it as your own unique journey.
His Grace Alone,
Kurt Byrnes
Henry Nouwen 1 Cor. 7:31 John 8:36 John 19:30