A funeral among men is a wedding feast among the angels.
~Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
~ Jesus, King of The Universe and Sower of all Life, in John 4
Have you felt it? It is a power and reality and clarity of Life unknown to those who will not seek it. It is available to all, yet sought by few. It is the food and goodness and goodness found on the table He sets for us in the presence of our enemies.
What would you eat off that table if you knew you could not lose the battle anyway?
What would you dare if you knew you would not fail?
Where would you go if you knew you would arrive?
What would you plant if you knew it would grow?
What weapon would you wield if you knew it would prosper?
How would you Love if you knew it worked?
What would you (like Jim Elliot) give up – knowing you cannot keep it anyway – to gain the things you cannot lose?
There is beloved, a deep truth of the entire Word of G_d that often we just kinda skip over. But if we miss it, we kinda miss the whole point. G_d wins. G_d does not lose. G_d is never afraid. He simply laughs at anything in all of creation that would set itself up against its Maker. He indeed does go before us. He is with us. He will never fail us. He will never forsake us. There is never, ever, ever (ever) a reason to be afraid.
So, it is in this context that we fight. And this is why we often see our Captain not grim before us, but dancing to a rhythm we but rarely understand. Joy. Strength. Laughter. Love. Grace. Sureness. Peace. Righteousness. Power. Wholeness. Goodness.
And sometimes He simply rocks us back in our spirits at the strength and power of His own Presence in our lives. He is just so sure of all of who He already Is that He surprises us with the relaxed stance with which He moves in our lives. He sets us down and shares His heart with us like He has all the time in the universe to spend just with us. And when we slow down enough to catch the truth of who He is, we realize this is exactly true. For an infinite G_d is able to share a day with us as if it were a thousand years. And He does indeed move across the millennia to meet us in a single moment.
And so, when we are in Him, and He in us – anywhere we go is towards Him. Anything we do truly seeking after His righteousness and pursuing His Kingdom is exactly where we go. We cannot go wrong in Him, and this is one of the great empowerments and strengths we we gain from Him. As we live in His will, we do not lose energy to live, rather we gain more strength in the clarity and confirmation He builds into us.
In Him, our lives are no longer losing velocity due to the drag and turbulence of disobedience and distrust. Rather, as He smooths our souls and spirits edges, we begin to be able to move along at actually stunning speeds within the slipstream of His Spirit in which we live and move and have our being.
And then we see it. Fruit.
All the things He is doing in us are truly that we may become more like Him, and learn and grow to really and truly Love Him with the Love He has for us. However, it goes deeper. The grace He has imparted in us is then multiplied in 10’s and 100’s and 1000’s and millions. And this, that the cycle might grow on through even larger orders of magnitude into an eternal Kingdom simply bursting with people whose hearts now burst with the fullness and energy and Love he sowed into but a few of us seeds.
Beloved, we fight a battle in this world. But the battle is so assuredly in His hand that it only makes sense to feast on His goodness as we proceed on the victory march He has us on. March on friends.
Almost Home.
