A Bit of Hope

Efficiency has become the way we have defined success, using in this case the royal “we.” Granted God is by far the most efficient being in all of existence, the popular conceptions of it seem so contrary to His nature. It seems that when God said, “Let us make man in our own image!” the picture that almost appears is that of a lawyer, philosopher, and accountant standing around some blueprints attempting to hash out this newfangled monstrosity. Tireless effort thrown together ends up only in the creation rebelling and the conclave of Creator beings frustrated. Its times like this I wish my mind wasn’t cluttered with so much Gnostic and post-Freudian thought and I could actually get a better hold on beholding God. Don’t get me wrong those are not the only things to blame, we shan’t ignore the purple elephant of the fallen nature by any means but too much detachment has seemed to become the status quo and in far too many cases the golden calf.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit birthed all of the created order from the overflow of what they were, are, and will be which is the ineffable joyous immeasurable fountain of love. God has, for me in my upbringing, always seemed as if He were not quite sure what to do with creation. You had the angels and the demons, the elite being that really ruled over the humans; animals who the humans ruled over and were either cute or tasted good or neither; and then there were humans who were made in the image of God meaning that our physiological frame was in some way shape or form a vague comparison to His own. The Trinity was never really applied to anything with the exception of the time the word was actually used. Interchange amidst the Godhead was almost something unnecessary to divulge into or at least it was too noble a pursuit.
With such a detached view it is easy to miss the purpose of even existence. To be honest what had encompassed the years prior was more like communism than Christianity. We work and save people in order to get a pat on the back from God and when you do really well people will acknowledge what you are doing and you might get persecuted, only in the end to have the person realize how good a person you really are. If it came to it, martyrdom was always a high calling. I mean if Jesus could die a gruesome death why couldn’t we. In the end all that seemed left was just a vague picture of this huge mass singing songs for eternity on some shiny surface. Which I guess why the idea of Heaven terrified me so much, perpetual monotony never is appealing unless it is coupled with perpetual agony.
In the end all that I had been left with was the meaning of life was to worship God because He was God and that is what you did. I had heard stories of she kina type experiences and every now and then went to a service where people fell down. The height of encounter was either seeing something really cool or showing some form of emotion.
We were made for so much more. We truly were. Genesis says that we are made in the likeness of God and are to do our heavenly Father’s will. As sons and daughters our primary occupation is to be like our Father through our Brother Jesus Christ. Above all Jesus and God do not base their entire relationship around some strategy board moving people and angelic beings around but their primary occupation is being completely immersed in the love of each other and pouring that forth. At their right hand is pleasures forever more and the fullness of joy is in their presence. This mind you is the God who created music, color, monkeys, mountains, dancing, laughter, sex, relationship, human beings, the four living creatures, and everything else. The angels around His throne are not mindless drones perpetually yelling words God likes to hear but the stay due to the fact that God’s beauty far surpasses any articulation or comprehension. God does not create that which does not reflect His glory, and everything yearns for His rule and reign to be established. Rocks are capable of crying out praise and the Earth is groaning like a woman in labor waiting for God’s radiance to be unrestrained.
This is the God we worship. What a thousand sunrises cannot paint and what a thousand sonatas can articulate pales in comparison to the one who can lay the forest bare with a single blast from His nostrils. To think that we (assuming people are the only ones reading this not highly learned gorillas) were made to partake of that divine and glorious fellowship. I mean words like “glory” and “divine” have been so beaten into the ground that almost all meaning has been stripped from them. The cosmos have been stretched forth by His hand and God knows every movement of my heart. He sees when I wake up, He knows the words that come out of my mouth, He knows what moves me, He knows the sin I am going to commit minutes after I feel His presence deeply, He knows my days and orders my steps, He is coming to rule and reign, and He holds all things together with the power of His word. This is my God,
My God is love. My God is not a detached ruler of a vapid subjugation He mildly loathes. His ways are not our ways nor His thoughts our thoughts. Though our being reflects Him by nature He is not entirely like us. He is the God of communion and the God of Rest. How can one rest detached from others. He who seeks isolation seeks their own destruction. True rest is found in the deepest intimacy feeling secure in every area of your life, this is where the striving ceases.
God is so often looked at as a means to an end and He is only part of the end because that is what the contract we signed stipulates. However, He is the Beginning and the End. The cross was more than a big rubber stamp to declare “Forgiven” on our sin stained name tags but it was the unifying of all things. Jesus went to the furthest extent of pain and abandonment in order for us to enter into the divine fellowship of joy. Jesus came to redeem all and redemption is not just a mere legal standing but it is a reversal of the curse and will be fulfilled when He comes to rule and reign. This does not negate the pursuit of holiness and intimacy but spurs us forward. Jesus did not die for a quota but for a pure and spotless Bride, one in who He would not be unequally yoked to. The cry in our hearts which is a faint reflection of the one in God’s heart is one for total intimacy. There is a reason why Jesus did not say, “Go into the world and make converts,” but called the body to make disciples. We are to follow in His footsteps and not just obtain a shotgun message. In order to walk in the footsteps of Christ we need to be able to be as He is and enter into love, those who love Him are those who obey His commands.
His plan is not based on our whims or accomplishments. He is not critiquing humanity to see if they measure up to His standing. There is a reason why the meek and the poor and spirit are blessed. He is not holding His breath hoping that by some miracle we get everything right, but it is He Himself who is the one who is the Good Shepherd declaring the beginning from the end. His way is gentle and He leads with tenderness. Though He rules with resolve stronger than any iron fist He knows that we are but dust and does not see people as pawns in a game which He is locked in willing for casualties to be a flippant thing. He does not even delight in the death of the wicked but is a God that is longsuffering and came to suffer with us.
The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. The law brings death and we are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. He allows the rain to fall on the good and the wicked, this is His perfection. Justice comes forth from His throne and is surrounded by mercy. He does not demand a rigid mechanical obedience because robots are incapable of love, which is the only commandment. We have a High Priest, we have an Intercessor, we have a Friend who was tempted in every way and learned obedience through suffering in order to sympathize (suffer) with us. This is our boldness. This is our confidence. This is our righteous: Faith in Him who loved us.