My best thinking happens in the shower. I suppose that’s the one time that I’m not distracted by other input. On Sunday, I was rehearsing some failures and disappointments (as I do too often) when I felt the Holy Spirit speak to my heart something like this:
You live in a fallen world which will always be fallen to some degree until Christ comes to renew all things.
Wow, that’s liberating! I want us to love each other as Christ taught us how. This isn’t what Bonhoeffer calls, “visionary dreaming;” it’s a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Jesus has promised that this hunger will be filled, but all too often I find inequity and strife among God’s people. I see myself and other disciples clinging to our time and treasure while others suffer or do without. The world continues to rush toward judgment falls unchecked by us, and believers continue to carry their burdens alone. These observations do and should grieve us. But they needn’t take any of us to the point of despair or despond. Results are not our responsibility any more than they are our merit. What’s more, they are assured!
Christ is coming back at the time set by the Father. When he returns he will call our names according to his promise. He will destroy death and offer up his kingdom to the Father in the rewed earth where the justice we long for will be the norm.
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13 NIV)
This doesn’t mean that we sit on our hands until he comes. It means that we can dive into his work doing all the good we can, knowing that at the end of this Day of Salvation, he will use all of our efforts for the advance of his cause and that they will be remembered with a hearty “Well done!”
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:58 NIV)