October 2019
Toward the end of last month, New Temple Evangelical signed a contract to lease the old chapel at 3600 Telegraph Road for a full year-and-a-half. We are, it seems, home (at least for a bit).
When people of Israel crossed the Jordan River, the Lord parted the waters for them just as he had when they first left Egypt. It was a powerful sign, and one that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Some read it as a sign of God being present with them, others of the providential nature of their mission, and still others as a symbol of their rebirth from being a landless people to a landed people.
There is a sense in which all these things are true, not only for them, but also for us.
I confess, I am among the skeptics when it comes to attributing things I see happening around me to the hand of God. It isn't because I doubt whether God is operative. It's more because I doubt whether we as human beings are sufficiently equipped to detect those operations, or at least to detect them rightly. Respect for the mysteriousness of God's will demand a certain humility on our part, and it has always seemed a bit presumptuous to me when others talk as if they can safely call things out just as they see them.
"When we align our heart with his heart, and when we pray "thy will be done as it is in heaven," our prayers are always answered..."
At the same time, it has been impossible not to notice how speedily certain obstacles which might have otherwise crippled this project from the beginning have been removed from our path, and how, from very unfavorable circumstances, good things have sprung up and blossomed as if from a spring in the desert (No, I did not get this quote from John Denver; I think he stole it from the prophet Isaiah).
How should we understand this? Not, I submit, as a sign of God's blessing on what we are doing, but rather as a reminder of how important it is for us to get on board with what he is doing. When we align our heart with his heart, and when we pray "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," out prayers are always answered, because his will and ours will have ceased to be in conflict with one another. God's soul becomes our soul. The two become one. And, as we so often say in our marriage ceremonies, what God has joined, let no man separate.
We are in a season of favor, but let us not forget what true favor is. It does not consist in buildings, numbers, money, programs, or other measurable outcomes (though God does give such things). Rather it consists in the gift of his indwelling presence, the light and food that comes with it, the peace and joy that comes from knowing him better, and above the fruit of sacrificial love that grows and ripens from the life within.
Let us give thanks for all the earthly good we have received, but let us never forget to set our hearts on the things above.
Comments