So, we're born, we live, we die.
And in that in-between part called life, it seems like we're always fighting. We fight to get that colorful toy, the nicest crayon, or the cool cubby. We fight to stick up for our friend with the mismatched socks and funny-looking glasses, and to stick up for our right to play on the playground with the cool kids. We fight to defend our honor when the teacher accuses us of something we didn't do. And as we grow up, the fights get bigger. We fight to keep our sanity in an insane world. We fight to pay the bills on time every month. We fight to have the time for our loved ones while still making a decent living. We fight with people in every part of our life because we never win at having enough time for everyone. We fight because we're scared, we fight because we're hurt, and we fight because we've been doing it all our lives.
So in walks the Prince of Peace, Jesus. Everyone was drawn to him and knew he was something different. But he didn't have it any better. He fought with the priests & the leaders about the right way to live, he fought with his own family because he spent too much time with other people, and he fought for his sanity when the world around him just felt like too much, too overwhelmed with sadness and oppression and evil. So what is his peace? What is the hope that we can hang onto, that drew the crowds to him and made them want to give him their children to just touch them and bless them? What is the peace we have to hang onto in a world where all we know how to do from the time we're infants is to fight?
All I can do is hang onto two things. The first is that he understands. He went through the struggle, grew and lived in a harsh place with people fighting for their freedom, for their ability to worship, for their survivial. And the second is that he didn't just fight, he won, and he won where it counted. He didn't win at getting the high life where he could settle down and watch the rest of us struggle through the rat race. He beat death, and he beat every temptation and sin. He says he overcame the world, for himself and for us. So even though we lose a lot of our battles in the mean time, he says we can be at peace in our hearts because the victory he won for us can never be taken away; we have a hope of being changed to be like him, of having a home with him after we die, of experiencing his final peace & victory with him. It seems like after he died & rose, Jesus was always at peace. I like to think about that.
So where is he when I'm fighting? I guess he's fighting with me when I'm following him, because he wants to give me the same power to win where it counts. He's fighting for my marriage every day, for me to do the big things he gives me dreams about, for me to keep my sanity in a world that makes no sense, where people are always hurting and broken and needing so much, where nothing works out the way we want it to and dreams seem futile. He's right there in the middle of it, if I'll just open my eyes.
Comments (3)
it's so easy for us to get stuck in the vision of the human Jesus, and forget that He rose victorious from death and that He is at the right hand of the God of the Universe and Beyond.
thank you for the balanced view you gave.;)
@pearl_magriet - Thanks for the comment. You're right, seeing the victory is very important and easy for me to miss.