Day 54
Scripture focus: "Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen. He is my Beloved, who pleases me. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious and his name will be the hope of all the world. Matthew 12:18-21NLT
When our son Michael is in the midst of his spring lacrosse season, I try to make a habit of digging myself out from my responsibilities each afternoon in time to get to practice early. When I watch my boy run up and down the field with a lacrosse stick in his hand, I feel God's pleasure. For me, it's worshipful to watch and marvel at how God created my kid to play with such passion and pleasure. One day during practice I notice the guys divide into two teams, each forming a vertical line. Each line sets out for a run, and the player in the back of the line sprints to the front; then the next guy at the rear sprints from back to front - until all have had a shot at sprinting. The line that completes their rotation first wins the battle (and is exempt from "suicide" sprints at the end of practice). On this particular day, I notice that one team actually huddles before the race begins. This is unusual, I think to myself. And when the coach yells, "Go!" the huddled team approaches the drill from a perspective I've never witnessed in previous runs. And they are victorious! This is Michael's line, and of course, a mother loves it when her baby doesn't have to run those extra end-of-the-day sprints!
When Michael pops in the car at the end of practice, I ask about the huddle and strategizing. It turns out that with a wounded player in their line, they formulated a way to help him make the run without costing the team too much valuable time. "Why bother with that?" I ask. "You guys usually lose that drill anyway; with a hurt team mate, why did you think you had a chance to win?"
He shrugs. "Because, mom, " he sighs and rolls his eyes toward a mother who is so clueless about the ways of men and their teams, "He's injured. We needed to protect him. He's stubborn and would have tried to run the suicides if we had lost. That wouldn't have been good for him. We had to win."
Immediately, a verse came to my mind: He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. Finally he will cause justice to be victorious and his name will be the hope of all the world." My son will tell you that what they did that day was self-preservation or experienced strategizing or "in the best interests of the team" - no big deal. What I say is that on the field that day God went to work incognito. Somehow, in some way, the values of God permeated the thoughts of this team. They didn't fight or shout or raise their voices. What they did was figure a way to keep the weakest reed from being crushed; they purposefully surrounded the flickering candle with care. They caused justice to reign on that rocky patch of dirt. They sustained hope. Now maybe you think I'm carrying this silly example too far. But let me urge you to consider this: we can find seemingly small ways to fulfill the prevailing purposes of God. If we're ever going to move from cyclical to purposeful suffering - we better be a people who know what the heck our purpose is!!! Purposeful sufferers and their buddies follow the model of Christ. They demonstrate justice and mercy - on ball fields, in schools, at work, at home. They figure out how not to crush weak reeds and how to sustain flickering candles. These small, seemingly insignificant choices can and will restore hope and cause justice to be victorious. It takes heart to live large in small ways.
Recommended reading: Leviticus 14 in the morning; Psalm 40 in the evening
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