Having a Heart in a Sometimes Heartless World
Scripture focus: If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places – firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.” Isaiah 58:9-12 The Message
Once upon a time, I thought that when all my problems were solved, life would get good. I thought that if all my hurts, habits and hang-ups could be cured, I would be freed to live a renovated life. Wrong again!
God is teaching us the most amazing principle in today’s focal scripture. He’s telling us quite clearly that “I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places...” Notice what he is NOT saying. He’s not saying that he fills up the empty space, and then gives us a full life!
That’s why I love a recovery community. It’s the kind of place where a guy one day sober is put in charge of making the coffee. I’ve had some bad coffee in my time. A person one day sober might NOT see straight. He or she might pour in 30 cups worth of coffee and add 8 cups of water. Or vice versa. But here’s what’s great about it – being given the responsibility of making the coffee might be the most important job anyone has trusted that guy or gal with in years. (Trust me – coffee is a big deal in a support group meeting.)
And thus begins the building of firm muscles and strong bones.
The darkness doesn’t lift, and then the sunlight shines.
The sun dispels the darkness. Who is the source of this marvelous light? God.
Is our ability to restore, rebuild, and renovate dependent upon us figuring out how to make the perfect cup of coffee? No way!
It is as we practice living life God’s way, that God moves in and waters the garden.
Our ability and reputation to fix, restore, rebuild, renovate and make community livable again is a reputation we don’t earn – it’s a gift God provides. Anytime anyone sees something redemptive going on in our lives – we’re getting credit for something God has provided! How grateful do we feel?
How freeing is it to know that we don’t have to get our lives all perfected before we can become perfectly equipped to live a fruitful life?
This is the good life!
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