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


6.17.2009  

Capturing What I Wrote

Well over a year ago, I wrote the following:

"How are you?" The variations of that non-threatening, traditional greeting are many, but the purpose is the same: to greet someone. But you know what? I find my answers severely...lacking. Rarely do I feel as though I've really answered the question. Sometimes, it's because I don't really want to tell that person how I'm doing. At other times, it's because I don't like the answer, even if I really want to gush my guts. At still other times, I find that I don't even understand the answer, or think that maybe the answer isn't valid for some reason.

Tonight, though, I thought about that question. What I find I really want to ask isn't, "How are you?" No, my question lies somewhere along these lines: "Are you enjoying Jesus? Are you believing the promises that are yes and amen in Him? What areas of sin do you see in my life that need to be addressed? Do you see Christ in me? What has the LORD been teaching you in these recent days and weeks?" In my head, those are the questions I hear. In my heart, those are the questions that burn.

So tell me...are you enjoying Jesus?


Less than a couple of months following that, I wrote this in a blog post that I'd written to my awesome friend Rich:

Rich...the following comes mostly from some thoughts scrawled down in my journal at some point last week. I hope this helps. At the very least, it's helped me to gaze upon the Savior more, which is something I desperately need. For that, I thank you.

In the story of Abraham and Isaac, the LORD makes very clear not only the impossibility of Isaac's birth, but also the precious value of the love that Abraham had for Isaac. Did he value his son any more than any other father in history? That's mere conjecture, but one cannot deny the circumstances he found himself in could only heighten his awareness of Isaac's precious value.

Man is, by his very finite existence, limited in his capacity to love. It is impossible for any one of us to love with unending passion and perfection; invariably, our affections heat and cool, often with no rhyme or reason. With this in mind, I think God stacks the odds in Abraham's favor: every creaky step, every sag and wrinkle, every quiet, lonely memory reminded him and Sarah both of the exceeding value of their son, the son of promise.

Yet, what was Isaac's purpose but to point to the ultimate, infinitely more precious Son of Promise, Jesus Christ? The circumstances Abraham found himself in were designed to make him all the more aware of the worth of his son, and to make clear to us the worth and love with which the Father views the Son. Any affection Abraham had for Isaac was but a cold shadow compared to the white-hot light of glory that, from all eternity, passed between God the Father and God the Son. The darkened storm that came upon Abraham's heart when he walked the road to Moriah was nothing compared to Light of the World being snuffed out upon the cross. In Abraham, we but dimly begin to glimpse the infinite pleasure the Father has in His Son...that God has in Himself.

This, at the very least, is a part of what I believe John Piper and Henry Scougel have inferred with their writings. The entirety of Scripture reveals, over and over and over again, a holy God making clear to sinful Man the worth and value of Himself. This, though Man does not think it so, is loving. That God uses lives like Abraham's to stretch and stir our sinful and finite hearts is all the more wondrous, as it is in a life like Abraham's that we can identify our own yearnings for love and to be able to love, shriveled and weakened though those capacities to receive and give love may be. It is the LORD's wont and wisdom to take a variety of circumstances, not least of which is Abraham's fatherly love for the precious son whom he longed for, and show petty Man that the Father loves His Son, has loved His Son from all eternity, and will love His Son for all eternity. This love is God-centered, not man-centered, and is central to His glory.

I suppose the reason I share the contents of both of these old posts is because they capture, at least in part, what's going through my heart these days. More specifically, they capture what I'd like to see and feel going through my heart.

posted by Bolo | 11:13 PM
1 speakage
Free Hit
Counters
Dell Coupons
Daily
Read
Listen
Visualize
Blogging Buddies
Old School
Me
Bug Me
Yore
Factuality
Quotatious