Moving Shadows

 

Monday, March 21, 2022

I said to myself, “I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say.  I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me.”  But as I stood there in silence—not even speaking of good things—the turmoil within me grew worse.  The more I thought about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words:  “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.  Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.  You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.  My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” Interlude

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.  We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.  And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?  My only hope is in you.  Rescue me from my rebellion.  Do not let fools mock me.  I am silent before you; I won’t say a word, for my punishment is from you.  But please stop striking me!  I am exhausted by the blows from your hand.  When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us.  Each of us is but a breath. Interlude

Hear my prayer, O Lord!  Listen to my cries for help!  Don’t ignore my tears.  For I am your guest—a traveler passing through, as my ancestors were before me.  Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more.  Psalm 39:1-13

A shadow has little substance.  Now that is  more than an obvious truth; it opens a host of cans of worms for us humans.  Our shadow is a subtle reminder of where we go, and what we do.  And when the track of the shadow moves away from God, or without connected relevance to God, it is rebellion unmasked; our deeds give us away.  When we prefer the shadows we give traction to what Apostle John wrote about the incarnation of Godly substance:

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  John 3:19

The Psalmist admitted this well before John wrote about it:

 Darkness is my closest friend.  Psalm 88:18b

Both the Old Testament Psalmist, and New Testament Apostle give rise to the shadow David wrote about in the beloved 23^rd Psalm, a valley of shadows, announcing death like a foreboding spectre.

The point of bringing the shadows into the light for our examination is not a morose elevation of gloom, but rather the warning intended by Scripture’s overwhelming juxtaposition of light and darkness.  God’s Word shows us the difference between rebellion’s darkness, and the purpose of God’s light of truth.  God’s desire is to bring us out of the darkness, into His marvellous light.

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people.  You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession.  As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.  1 Peter 2:9

For You Today

We understand darkness because we are fallen creatures, living in a fallen, twisted, rebellious-towards-God-world.  But we cannot come up with one sound reason as to why we are fascinated-by, and pulled towards the darkness.

But we also understand the call of God (as C.S. Lewis put it) to leave the Shadowlands of darkness behind.  We are called to walk in His light; there is no blind stumbling there.

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

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©    

Moving Shadows

[1]

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.  Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.  You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.  My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” Interlude

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.  We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.  And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?  My only hope is in you.  Rescue me from my rebellion.  Do not let fools mock me.          I am silent before you; I won’t say a word, for my punishment is from you.  But please stop striking me!  I am exhausted by the blows from your hand.  When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us.  Each of us is but a breath. Interlude

Hear my prayer, O Lord!  Listen to my cries for help!  Don’t ignore my tears.  For I am your guest—a traveler passing through, as my ancestors were before me.  Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more.  Psalm 39:4-13(NLT)

The lectionary list of Scriptures for each day provides an Old Testament, Psalm, and New Testament reading.  Today the selections are Job 32, which is steeped in the middle of Job’s misery.  Then Psalm 39, David’s overwhelming grief in the middle of consequences following his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, and his murderous attempt to cover up his sin.  And, finally, Luke 16, the rich man who ignored the poor man and wound up in Hell.  To quote old Homer Rothrock:  There ain’t much romance in any of it!

At the end of David’s prayer he asks God for a little break in this tsunami of guilt washing over his life.  Just give me a little down-time away from reality; let me play a little video game, or shoot a few hoops, practice shoot at the range, find a new girlfriend or some kind of diversion so I can forget my woes, smile a little, have a nice meal and go to bed.  Lord, just one happy day before you take my shadow off this planet!

At the beginning of this selection David asks for a reminder of the brevity of life; by the end of the passage he just wants to be left alone to forget all about it.  We humans, created by the hand of God, are truly complex and not at all consistent in the middle of grief.  But we do follow in our forbearer’s footsteps.  Later David’s son, Solomon would write the one word that describes his father’s deep sorrow – vanity[2].  And for good measure he would emphasize its impact on humanity:  all is vanity.

So, what good comes out of this happy little reflection?  Plenty…if we will hear it…unlike King David, who just wanted a little nappy.  The good news here is the answer for which David longed, a reminder of how brief and empty life will be when all we chase is the wind, with all its’ frantic and frivolous activity of self-absorption towards which we humans are bent.  God interrupts our video game with a power outage, or breaks our basketball hoop just before we make that incredible shot, or He dashes the next disastrous relationship before it gets going, just to keep us grounded.

Why is pain so necessary?  Why did God design life with shadows?  Why does everything seem so empty at times, when God speaks so powerfully about how wonderful it is to serve Him?  Why does He do that?  And the reality comes echoing back even before we finish getting those words out:  God didn’t do that; we did!

And then, like David, like Job, like Dives in Hell, we just want a break from thinking about it; just bring me a little drop of cool water to drip on my parched tongue, a nap, a little diversion from the truth.  That’s what we want; God rarely cooperates!

The Pastor Relations Committee from the two churches I currently serve met with me before the first Sunday we had together in 2012.  The agenda for the meeting included their sharing with me what they hoped to experience in worship, part of which was to not have sugar-coated preaching.  The gist of that hope is:  you cannot understand or rightfully-appreciate the Good News, until you rightly understand the Bad News.

I have so appreciated that thought; it frees the preacher to proclaim the height, depth, and breadth of sin, with all its’ consequences … and then announce the good news, that the love, joy, and salvation of God are bigger than anything sin offers.  David, Job, and Dives, the rich man who wound up in Hell all found out in the hardest of ways that we need to be rescued from our rebellion.  There is a better way than just choosing our own way; our only hope is in Christ Jesus.

For You Today

The next time your life seems like just a moving shadow, remember that when light hits the room shadows have to hide.  Better to live in the light, than to be a moving shadow!

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

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Read Ecclesiastes

Faded Flowers and Withered Grass

[i]

Monday, May 1, 2017

For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end.  Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.  As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field.  The grass withers and the flower fades.  But the word of the Lord remains forever.”  And that word is the Good News that was preached to you. 

1 Peter 1:23-25^(NLT)

In 1897 America’s premier folk-author, Mark Twain, published a statement to announce that he was quite alive and well; this is what the ad said:

James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now.  The report of my illness grew out of his illness; the report of my death was an exaggeration.[ii]

It seems just about everything Mark Twain ever wrote was with his tongue pressed firmly against his cheek.  Even reports that he had died gave him great opportunity to bring a ragged barb of humor to his readers.

Peter brings this same edge to Scripture, comparing the life cycle of flowers and grass to humans.  The grass withering and the flowers fading are pictures of old age on the precipice of eternity.  But, standing in opposition to the grip of death is the Word of God; Peter says it is Good News of eternal life which stands firmly with God forever.  And any report of Scripture’s demise is more than an exaggeration; it is laughable!

And therein blooms the choice of the ages:  to accept the truth that it is Good News, or reject the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus as an exaggeration of deluded people.  In reality, this is the choice facing anyone who has ever heard the Gospel of Good News, to take a leap of faith and entrust these few short years of flowered existence on planet Earth, AND the possibility of life beyond the fading, to a God they’ve never seen.  That’s more than a big question; it is the question to end all questions.

Ultimately everyone makes a choice.  The challenge of the Gospel is that, nobody gets to remain neutral when it comes to Jesus Christ.  Here’s the way Jesus put it:

Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.  Matthew 12:30^(NLT)

So the choice to not choose is a choice nonetheless; if you ignore Christ you have chosen against Him.  And, according to the Gospel, to choose against Christ is to choose the withering and fading of all hope of eternal life in favor of a living death, separated from the Creator eternally.

But the choice for Christ, to acknowledge his grace in dying on the cross for our sins, is a choice for resurrection and life eternal.

For You Today

If you have never accepted that grace of Jesus Christ, you can do that with a simple prayer from your heart.  Confess your sins to God and receive in exchange for your sins Jesus’ life.  That’s quite a deal; you have the opportunity to trade your sentence of eternal death for his gift of new birth and eternal life. 

And it really is Good News!  And THAT is not an exaggeration at all!

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

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NOTES

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 ^I Title image: Photographs by JarrahTree, via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Mark Twain, 1897.^[4]