Will Your Rope Hold?

 

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.  Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.  Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.  Hebrews 12:1-2

I have heard people talk about the Christian life as if it were a rope.  There are as many theories as there are people as to how to go about living that rope-life.  But they distill-down to about three:

1.    The Latent Atheist:  When you come to the end of the rope…let go…there was nothing there in the first place, only the end of the rope.  It’s over.

2.    The Budding Optimist:  When you come to the end of the rope…let go, because God will catch you.

3.    The Uncompromising Pragmatist:  When you come to the end of the rope…tie a knot and hold on, because that’s what people do.

I’m not at all sure you can take any of those in raw form and build a plan for life which is Biblically-sound.  Certainly not atheism; there’s no future in the absence of hope.  Optimism may sound good on a mountaintop, but Christians are called to walk in the valleys of life.  Pragmatism is the other side of a dry well because it smacks of humanistic self-reliance, the very opposite of surrender to the will (and Providence) of God.  Besides, human strength goes only so far.

So…what to do?

A case can be made for both perseverance and faith.  Perseverance is tying the knot, and faith is engaging life, walking, trusting God for the ground under your feet with every step.  It is the game plan for the surrendered life in Christ.  It is not an absence of fear, but putting your leg to the next step despite fear, depression, hurt, wonder, or any other of the six billion things that might short-circuit following in Jesus’ footsteps.  You breathe, in and out, you walk daily, serving, loving, and waiting on His direction.

There’s an oft-repeated line in a poem entitled When He Comes.[1]

There’s a King and captain high, Who’ll be coming by and by.

And He’ll find me hoeing cotton when He comes.

When He comes!  When He comes!

And He’ll find me hoeing cotton when He comes!

For You Today  

The Christian life of surrender to God’s will is filled with hoeing cotton, a euphemism for doing what God brings your way; you walk with Him in prayer and obedience, and you engage your community in every way, both the simple and complex.  As Paul put it: 

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Colossians 3:23

Today, breathe, pray, get moving, keep serving and loving…hoe all the cotton He gives you…and keep looking for when He comes.  You won’t have to worry about whether your rope will hold…you know the One who holds the rope!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Holy Huddle  and  Strength to Go On

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] When He Comes, French E. Oliver, 1921