A Blessing of Freedom for 2009
Typically each New Year I become very introspective. I spend a good bit of time evaluating my life and the relationships I am so blessed to enjoy. I enter a time of remembering the people and experiences of the past year and even those of more distant years. I think God had his people celebrate certain feasts and events yearly for these very reasons. So this year I have done the same and after prayer and contemplation I continue to feel that 2009 will be the year of Freedom.
Freedom comes in many forms and it isn’t always what we imagine it to be. Freedom isn’t just the ability to do as one chooses. Freedom is also the ability to do as one should do. I sense that in 2009, the people of God will be more aware of the specific journeys to which God has called them, both the easy paths and those that are more difficult to traverse. While most people realize that to some degree they are immersed in a process, I feel that in 2009 God will pull back the curtain a bit for the purpose of allowing us to understand with greater clarity that our walks are not only with Him and through Him, but that they are also very much for Him. The glory God receives from the seemingly mundane and unimportant tasks undertaken faithfully by those who follow Him will be made known. Additionally, the journeys that have seen or will see tragedy and pain will be softened with the divine understanding that our security has never been found in the things or even the people that are so painfully torn from us in this world. Our identity, as strenuously as we have fought to prove and live out a reality stating otherwise, has never been found within things or even people. Our identity, our security and the sole legacy we will one day leave for those who will follow us in this world will be defined largely by the freedom we learn to live out within our relationship with the Creator…that freedom is found through the resurrected Messiah.
Freedom through the resurrected Messiah is crucial because Resurrected Lord is the impulse to ministry and to the inclination to live life intimately with others. “When He saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like a sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9). This passage of exquisite tenderness offers a glimpse into the humanity of Jesus. It tells us how he felt, and still feels, about mankind. It reveals his way of looking at the world…His nonjudgmental attitude toward people who were looking for meaning in vacant lands and who were seeking happiness in vain pursuits. We are safe in our assumption that Jesus feels the same about us today as the heart of Jesus beats the same yesterday, today and forever.
Every time the gospels mentioned that Jesus was moved with deep emotion for people, they show that it lead him to do something-often that thing providing freedom through physical or spiritual deliverance and healings. Above all, the deep emotions lead him to remove the distorted images of who he is and who God is, to lead people out of darkness into light… the very definition of freedom. Jesus’ compassion moved him to tell the story of God’s love and the freedom offered us through intimacy with Him.
So in turn, our impulse to tell our story of how we are delivered from darkness into the Light arises from listening to the heartbeat of the risen Jesus within us. Telling the story doesn’t require, and may well even prohibit, that we become ordained ministers, nor does it demand that we try to convert people by concussion with one sledgehammer blow of doctrine after another. It simply means we share with others the ways in which our journey has been orchestrated, altered and blessed by the Author and Finisher of our faith. It simply requires that our freedom is experienced in community.
The imposter recoils at the prospect of telling such story because, having not yet been totally freed from his fears, which love always does, rejection casts a dark and intimidating shadow. The tension and anxiety produced by the fraudulent one who has never walked with the Master into the light and has never danced in the circle of God’s community is present because of the realization that he must rely on himself. Fearing failure, he knows that his power is limited by his paltry resources.
The true self is not cowed by timidity. Strengthened and carried on by a power greater than one’s own, the authentic seekers find basic security and reckless freedom in the awareness of the Risen One. Jesus, rather than self, is always the indispensable core of the free person and the free community. “Cut off from me, you can do nothing” (John 15). The moment we acknowledge that when we are alone and powerless, we enter into the liberating sphere of the Risen Messiah. Hence, we are freed from anxiety over the outcome.
When the final curtain of 2009 falls, let us reflect once again with great satisfaction and exhilaration that we have again participated with God in His mission in our lives and in His will for this world He created. May we all be free for Him, through Him and because of Him! May it be so.
Typically each New Year I become very introspective. I spend a good bit of time evaluating my life and the relationships I am so blessed to enjoy. I enter a time of remembering the people and experiences of the past year and even those of more distant years. I think God had his people celebrate certain feasts and events yearly for these very reasons. So this year I have done the same and after prayer and contemplation I continue to feel that 2009 will be the year of Freedom.
Freedom comes in many forms and it isn’t always what we imagine it to be. Freedom isn’t just the ability to do as one chooses. Freedom is also the ability to do as one should do. I sense that in 2009, the people of God will be more aware of the specific journeys to which God has called them, both the easy paths and those that are more difficult to traverse. While most people realize that to some degree they are immersed in a process, I feel that in 2009 God will pull back the curtain a bit for the purpose of allowing us to understand with greater clarity that our walks are not only with Him and through Him, but that they are also very much for Him. The glory God receives from the seemingly mundane and unimportant tasks undertaken faithfully by those who follow Him will be made known. Additionally, the journeys that have seen or will see tragedy and pain will be softened with the divine understanding that our security has never been found in the things or even the people that are so painfully torn from us in this world. Our identity, as strenuously as we have fought to prove and live out a reality stating otherwise, has never been found within things or even people. Our identity, our security and the sole legacy we will one day leave for those who will follow us in this world will be defined largely by the freedom we learn to live out within our relationship with the Creator…that freedom is found through the resurrected Messiah.
Freedom through the resurrected Messiah is crucial because Resurrected Lord is the impulse to ministry and to the inclination to live life intimately with others. “When He saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like a sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9). This passage of exquisite tenderness offers a glimpse into the humanity of Jesus. It tells us how he felt, and still feels, about mankind. It reveals his way of looking at the world…His nonjudgmental attitude toward people who were looking for meaning in vacant lands and who were seeking happiness in vain pursuits. We are safe in our assumption that Jesus feels the same about us today as the heart of Jesus beats the same yesterday, today and forever.
Every time the gospels mentioned that Jesus was moved with deep emotion for people, they show that it lead him to do something-often that thing providing freedom through physical or spiritual deliverance and healings. Above all, the deep emotions lead him to remove the distorted images of who he is and who God is, to lead people out of darkness into light… the very definition of freedom. Jesus’ compassion moved him to tell the story of God’s love and the freedom offered us through intimacy with Him.
So in turn, our impulse to tell our story of how we are delivered from darkness into the Light arises from listening to the heartbeat of the risen Jesus within us. Telling the story doesn’t require, and may well even prohibit, that we become ordained ministers, nor does it demand that we try to convert people by concussion with one sledgehammer blow of doctrine after another. It simply means we share with others the ways in which our journey has been orchestrated, altered and blessed by the Author and Finisher of our faith. It simply requires that our freedom is experienced in community.
The imposter recoils at the prospect of telling such story because, having not yet been totally freed from his fears, which love always does, rejection casts a dark and intimidating shadow. The tension and anxiety produced by the fraudulent one who has never walked with the Master into the light and has never danced in the circle of God’s community is present because of the realization that he must rely on himself. Fearing failure, he knows that his power is limited by his paltry resources.
The true self is not cowed by timidity. Strengthened and carried on by a power greater than one’s own, the authentic seekers find basic security and reckless freedom in the awareness of the Risen One. Jesus, rather than self, is always the indispensable core of the free person and the free community. “Cut off from me, you can do nothing” (John 15). The moment we acknowledge that when we are alone and powerless, we enter into the liberating sphere of the Risen Messiah. Hence, we are freed from anxiety over the outcome.
When the final curtain of 2009 falls, let us reflect once again with great satisfaction and exhilaration that we have again participated with God in His mission in our lives and in His will for this world He created. May we all be free for Him, through Him and because of Him! May it be so.
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