Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


9.12.2005  

Fixed

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. A lot of thinking. Yes, more than I usually do. Ok, maybe not more than I usually do, but it certainly feels like it. A lot's happened in the past month to warrant this feeling. Grandpa being sick, classes setting in, balancing work hours and school hours, church stuff, stuff at home, and...well...the overall weight of responsibility. A large portion of that responsibility, I've come to realize, is found in an increased knowledge and understanding of what the Lord says in Scripture. Over the past few years, I've seen that knowledge and understanding increase dramatically; part of the fallout of such an increase is that I have to learn how to use that knowledge and understanding wisely. If I do not, I face consequences that are dangerous, to put it lightly.

It's been hard. I look at what Scripture both mandates and promises, and I see how short I fall. 2 Corinthians 4 comes to mind...afflicted, but not crushed...perplexed, but not despairing...persecuted, but not forsaken...struck down, but not destroyed. I see my own sin, and I feel crushed. I see how blind the World is, and I feel despair. Where, then, is there hope?

In the midst of the swarm of thoughts and emotions that surround, I keep coming back to one thought: look to Christ. It's simple, and maybe even absurdly so, yet it's the one hope I do have. Various texts of Scripture pop into my head, reminding me to do just that: fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you...my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek"...for God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God...but we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

These days, I often wonder at how much the Lord's taught me; it's as though I cannot escape the greatness and the grandeur of His glory, even though I sometimes want to "take a break" from it all. I know, such a notion seems silly, but it's true. On the days when the Lord is not as savory as He once seemed, or at times when His Word is not as convicting to my hardened heart as it ought to be, I wonder what's going on...what's wrong.

It's at times like these, however, when looking at Christ truly becomes more than just an academic exercise. If I may sound somewhat academic for a minute, I'm reminded of what Christ meant, in an historical redemption sense, to those Jews to whom He appeared. Those who were eagerly awaiting the Messiah were those "to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh." The life and death of the Messiah was the centerpiece of all that they stood for, the fulcrum upon which balanced the glorious purpose of their existence. Is it any less so for me?

No, but I make it seem so. Therefore, I must constantly be reminded of this weight of glory, and remember that this weight of sin has already been borne by Christ upon the cross. But oh, it is so hard! I hate the difficulty I have in seeing and savoring Christ as I ought. I know that my sin is wretched, and I know that the World is not where I belong, but how do I gain hope amidst such turmoil and strife? By fixing my eyes upon Christ as I am being pulled onward by the sweet weight of His eternal glory.

posted by Bolo | 3:32 PM
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