This Easter morning our pastor asks, “How would you complete the sentence: Jesus is my…”
HOPE. That’s the first word to pop in my mind. As Esau McCaulley wrote this week “Christians, at their best, are the fools who dare believe in God’s power to call dead things to life.”
Go ahead, call me a fool then, because when my hope starts to teeter, only Jesus can rescue it.
Lord, I believe that if you can restore then, you can restore now. Right?
Help my unbelief.
Help me, El Shaddai, to remember that IF you can
…give walking, dancing, skip-jumping legs to a paralytic man
…breath in rosy cheeks and twinkling eyes to a lifeless daughter
…reverse the course of health for a suffering, deteriorating woman
…turn the arrogant to madness, the mentally wrecked to sanity, and the sane to humble praise-givers
THEN you can restore and make a new creation from the broken bodies and minds in our family too.
Lord, I believe that if you can reconcile us to you, then you can reconcile them to us. Right?
Help my unbelief.
Help me, Adonai, to remember that IF you can
…say to a man who walks along among the tombs,
with self-inflicted physical wounds
and many voices of torment:
“Go home.
Be reconciled to your family.
Tell them of your experience with the Lord’s mercy.”
…say to a man who walks aloof, alone among residences and businesses,
with self-inflicted heart wounds
and regretting the many stares of shame and condemnation:
“Take me into your home.
Be reconciled to your people.
Tell them of your experience with the Lord’s salvation.”
…say to a woman who walks in beauty alone among the fearful and unyielding,
with wounds both self and other-inflicted
yet drawing courage from the many stories of rescue:
“Welcome home.
Be reconciled to your new community.
Tell them of your experience with the Lord’s kindness.”
THEN you can reconcile and make beautiful all the broken relationships in our family too.
Lord, I believe that if the old is gone and the new has come, then your redemption is near to us. Right?
Help my unbelief.
Help me, Yahweh, to remember IF
…the light of your face and the blood in your veins
…your outstretched arms and mighty acts
…your unfailing love, mercy, and forgiveness
…are indeed the Way of Holiness,
THEN you can redeem the
discouraged
oppressed
broken
tormented
guilty
defeated
disgraced
lost
ashamed
cursed
that they may enjoy the Light.
No one can redeem the life of another
says the psalmist
So we will need a holy miracle here, Lord. Only you, O Savior, can fully restore, reconcile and redeem. My only option is to stand and say to the heavens:
My soul waits for the Lord,
more than sentries long for the dawn,
my soul waits.
And if I’m quiet long enough, I hear the still small voice say back:
Put your hope in the LORD,
for with Yahweh is unfailing love,
and with him is full restorative, reconciling, beautiful redemption.
Amen
Lord come quickly
Lord, Come Quickly 