Is it the weight of history that pulls on our souls? Or is it the weight of our personal, often private, inclinations that stand massive and monolithic between each of us and each of our peace? But what is peace? Is it a problem solved or the absence of a problem? Is it a person or the absence of a person? Does it begin in my home or yours? Does it have no beginning? Is peace of mind an opinion? Or is it a status?
And what of death? Should I celebrate the death of death or should I celebrate the death of my enemies? But who is my enemy? Is it a person or an opinion or a status? Or maybe none of that. And if death is defeated then what is a Christian? Is it a person or an opinion or status? Can I even claim to be a Christian? Can I claim Christ and the benefits of His cross without claiming my own cross? Can you? If the cross is finished, then what is really behind the veil?
Are we just regurgitating what we’ve heard but never really believed? Is the ecclesia worth all this technology? Or is the technology our new orthodoxy? Have we stunted our growth and stripped our palate of any real hunger? Did not the firstborn Son say favor rests on those with an appetite? Is not the king’s domain hidden in plain sight? Is the opposite of this world, a different world? Or this world, different? Or maybe heaven?
Has tribalism crept into my own line of reflection? Have I misunderstood or maybe flat out missed the extreme scope and paradox of God? He says His love is for the entire world and yet Jesus keeps running after the one lost sheep. He says He would never flood the earth again and yet He does, every time a single soul willingly falls under the baptismal wave. You are either a sheep or a goat—so maybe you should decide. And where sin increases, grace abounds and bounds ahead to cover and clear.
Does this generation love the far away fiend or merely hate their neighbors’ stability? And what of the next generation, do they burn the land but expect a bed in the farmhouse? Can a cursed tree still provide shade? Or is it in the shade that we find the valley of the shadow of death? Do you hate the discipline of the morning while spinning your prayers in the night? Do you hate the God that is a Father or hate your own father? They are not the same.
If you hate the Shepherd, maybe you should leave. But will the wolves and giants and influencers love you until the end? And what is the end? Does it already exist or has it passed by? Eternity is already here, in today—so maybe you should stay.
