mending the compass

-awashed in the busyness of our days with demands stockpiled against us, time’s commodity is of the essence. Sure can feel like ‘chasing after the wind’ or a ‘minus that won’t add up’. All these details and to-do lists are essential for the survival of our life, household and life’s basic functioning. But if ‘life’s a corkscrew that can’t be straightened’ than these daily paths that we urgently pace down might be slightly off course or in the wrong direction.
-I read in the news yesterday of a man who had locked up his younger female relative in a cage in his basement and tortured and abused her for years and years…when he finally appeared before the judge-the moment the gavel was to fall, the moment the judge was to put this deranged man in his own cage for life, the moment justice was to be resolved……………..Grace appeared. She walked over to the estranged man-looked him in his worn out and guilty eyes and said, ‘I still love you.’ Grace gives unconditional love to our frail, self-absorbed, selfish lives. Grace enters the courtroom through the homeless Son-of-Man and takes our place-He takes our judgment.
-You might add-I have never done a despicable act like that fellow…but remember His social contract that He gave His people recorded by Matthew in the fifth chapter…if you feel angry at another-you are GUILTY of murder….pretty harsh huh, well-don’t forget Grace…He goes on to say that you might think your clear of adultery by not getting in bed with another…..but our radical King says that when your heart is in bed with another you are convicted and always found GUILTY…..this refugee from Palestine goes on to say that if you drift into the old law of enemy hate and stand behind the old adage of an eye for an eye-then you are also GUILTY….Jesus ushered in His new kingdom based on a different ethic, one being enemy-love…..to love All, especially those who are the enemy.
-The verdict is out and we are guilty on all accounts….the criminal inside of us all….we are in the same position as the man mentioned above….
-this is the heart of the gospel…..this is why we need to reposition our daily compass….we need to stop trying to impress others as the holier-than-thou, as well as stop constantly dodging our guilty past…..the heart of Our narrative is that God sent His son to invite All into His new kingdom through the acts of sweet, sweet Grace. She embraces the arms of justice-like two lovers in a slow waltz-she smiles, and gives justice a big long kiss on the lips……this is the gospel….
-We are all guilty of being a bit self-focused/absorbed with the great ME…..we are all guilty of putting our selves before others…..Jesus comes knocking on our door…everyday….all the time….whispering to us the message of Grace and love…..we are loved-despite anything.
-Jesus message in Matthew doesn’t stop there….He is calling us to a new life style….He tells us to ‘Grow up’ and acknowledge that we are part of His story and with this new identity-this new self….we are to live the way He lives toward us……to give love/to serve/to give life……this is true north…is this the direction that we need to head everyday…..before, during and after the rushhour of the day…this is the flesh that we have to put on…….
-He calls us to live different, be different and act different…how would you act if you were pardoned from death? Loved despite all your short-coming? Embraced and waltzed with at your worst? Well, guess what??? You are!….believe it and live it…..grow into Him each day and let Our stories join in His great love affair.
-We are the missionaries, your in the mission field and Jesus wants us to love and give life to All His beautiful creation. The message is you! The time is now…Awake to this new Kingdom, embrace this Life so that each step on life’s path is graced with loving others more than ourselves and seeing Him in everything.
-In Genesis the Creator ‘looked over everything He had made, it was so good, so very good!’……how sweet the sound……