The Lady from Lodge

Part of my job as an archives assistant is processing oral history interviews, which involves listening to them, writing a summary, and identifying key words to assign as what we call “subject headings” that let listeners find other interviews relating to similar topics. Recently, I’ve been processing a batch of sixteen interviews with the founder of the university where I work, Bonnie Cone.

I never met Bonnie Cone; she died ten years before I even moved to Charlotte. But I feel like I’ve gotten to know her a little bit from listening to over sixteen hours of her conversations. And her legacy has affected not only the city of Charlotte but hundreds of thousands of lives—including mine.

Born in the small rural town of Lodge, South Carolina in 1907, Bonnie Cone set out to be a teacher and eventually found her way to a teaching job at Central High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Soon after, however, she was called upon to direct a college center that met in the high school and had been created to meet the educational needs of returning veterans after World War II. Although the Charlotte College Center of the University of North Carolina was only intended to be a temporary institution, Ms. Bonnie quickly developed a vision for a permanent school that would grow into a full-fledged university and serve the largest urban area in the state, an area that up to that point did not have a publicly funded co-ed university within the entire region.

Through her hard work, tenacity, strategic networking with business leaders and politicians, and tireless advocacy, Bonnie Cone saw the night-school college center through threats of closure in 1949 and ushered it into permanent junior college status as Charlotte College, then on to becoming a four-year school in 1963, and finally to becoming the fourth campus of the University of North Carolina, UNC Charlotte, in 1965. What was initially created to provide a college education to Charlotte-area veterans has now grown into a doctoral research university, attracting students from the Charlotte region and around the world.

Fifty years after Ms. Bonnie’s college achieved university status, I stepped on the campus to fulfill my practicum for an archival studies graduate program, and just over a year later I was thrilled to begin working there for my first non-self-employed post-college job. Two years after that, a young man from Palestine would choose UNC Charlotte out of four possible options as the university to which he would journey to earn his master’s degree. So in a very real sense, the fruits of Bonnie Cone (and others’) labor made it possible for me to have my dream job and to meet my future husband.

If Bonnie Cone had given up and let the Charlotte Center die in 1949, if she hadn’t striven to recruit the highest quality professors and jump through all the hoops to gain legal and financial support for the school, if she hadn’t had the vision for a thriving university, I probably would have had to settle for an “okay” job instead of a great one and my fiancé probably wouldn’t have come to Charlotte.

As I’ve been listening to Ms. Bonnie tell the story of how the college survived and grew into a university, I’ve been thinking about how the faithfulness and determination of one person can have exponential—even eternal—effects. Just taking my fiancé’s and my story as one example, the influence of Bonnie Cone’s life has been used by God to provide me a job, to provide my fiancé a furtherance of his education, to bring us to each other, to join two families and two cultures into a beautiful tapestry, and Lord-willing, to lead to the creation of more eternal souls.  

While I think Ms. Bonnie had an idea that many lives would be influenced by the university she envisioned, I doubt she could have known just how many that would be or grasped just how profoundly those lives would be shaped by what she helped to build. This can be an encouragement to us to remember that we don’t know the future whenever we wonder whether our lives are really making a difference. No, we’re not all going to found a giant university, but we all do things each and every day that touch the lives of others, and we never know how God might use our kindness,  perseverance, and faithfulness in things both big and small to accomplish His work for His glory and our and others’ good.

I have a feeling that if Ms. Bonnie were still here, she would tell you that if she could stick to it and accomplish her goals, then you can too. So the next time you feel like giving up on whatever God has lain on your heart to do, remember the story of a feisty little lady from Lodge whose dedication to implementing a vision one step at a time ended up changing the world. 

To see photos of Bonnie Cone, see the Goldmine Repository from Special Collections and University Archives of UNC Charlotte's Atkins Library.

The Gift of Asking

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar to you? So familiar, maybe, that you’ve thought them yourself?

-          I should thank God and praise Him instead of asking Him to give me things or to do things for me.

-          God’s in control of everything, so I don’t need to ask Him for _______. He already knows what I want/need anyway.

-          It’s more important to pray for other people than to pray for myself. Praying for myself is selfish and self-centered.

-          If I do pray for myself, it should only be about “spiritual” things, like praying God will grow me to be more like Jesus.

Confession time: these are all thoughts that have run through my head at one time or another. And some of them I still have to fight against regularly. On the surface, they seem to be correct, right? We know that God is worthy of our praise, that He is all-knowing and sovereign over all things, that our focus should be less on ourselves and more on God and others, and that His will for us is that we be shaped into the image of Jesus Christ. So what’s the problem?

The problem with the thought-statements above is that they take pieces of truth and twist them just enough to produce a misdirected application grounded in an untruth—that it is wrong to make requests of God regarding things that affect us personally. 

How many times have we all heard, “God isn’t a genie in the sky, existing only to grant your wishes”? While that is 100% true, the problem is that the implication—or at least the perception—of that statement is that asking God for something “personal” is tantamount to treating Him like a genie. For those who have a right understanding of who God is—of His supremacy and perfect holiness—the last thing we want to do is denigrate Him by approaching Him as our personal wish-granter. So, if you’re anything like me, this often means that we don’t approach Him at all.

But is this really the proper response to seeing God as holy and supreme? To answer that question, the best (and only) place to find an authoritative answer is God’s own Word. Even spending just a short time in the Bible is enough to show us that this kind of reaction—this hesitation to ask God for things—is completely counter to what God intends for us.

As just one example, in the Old Testament we see Hannah fervently praying, asking God very specifically to give her a child (1 Samuel 1). This was a point of great personal desire for her, since she was childless and regularly suffered the taunting of her husband’s other, fertile wife, adding insult to her pain. Likewise, the Psalms are filled with examples of David’s asking God for healing and protection. These are impassioned pleadings for personal deliverance.  

Even if those instances are looked at as descriptive rather than prescriptive, the New Testament exhorts us “in everything” to “let [our] requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6, ESV). And Jesus Himself tells us to ask (Matthew 7:7-11), teaches us to pray for ourselves (Matthew 6:11-13), and models what it looks like to bring requests to God the Father—yes, even requests for Himself.

In Gethsemane in the hours before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus makes a very personal request of God—that God would provide a way out of the impending wrath He is about to experience (Matthew 26:36-46, ESV). What is perhaps most striking about this passage in regards to our present topic is that Jesus, being God, knew that what He was about to endure was the only way. He knew that the cup would not be removed from Him. In other words, He knew the answer to His prayer would be “No.”

But He still asked.

That right there should be enough to show us the importance of asking. If Jesus, who knew what the answer to His request would be, still brought it before God, how much more should we! We learn from this example that even if the answer is “No,” there is still value in the asking itself, and one clue into the reason this is the case is found in the preface to Jesus’ request. He began just as He taught His disciples to begin—“My Father” (Matthew 26:39, ESV).

These words remind us that the Holy and Supreme God of the universe is also relational, and for those of us in Christ, He has entered into personal relationship with us—or rather, has brought us into personal relationship with Himself. In the same passage where Jesus speaks of asking, He also makes the connection to God’s fatherhood when He says, “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11, ESV). Part of having an intimate relationship with someone is conversing with them, opening up your mind and heart, sharing your thoughts and feelings—even if they already know them. So why, if God is our Father, would we neglect to communicate to Him our desires?

Yes, it is true that the purpose of God’s existence is not to fulfill our every want. But it is also true that God is our Father, and He endured unspeakable pain so that we could have a relationship with Him—a relationship more intimate than any other we will experience, a relationship that includes asking things of Him and then submitting to His will in the answer given. 

Does He depend on us to communicate with Him to fulfill some relational need on His part? No. Does He know what we will say before we say it? Yes. Will He always grant our desires? No. Will He often shape our desires into different ones? Yes. Sometimes He even uses the process of our articulating our desires to perform that transformative work in us, revealing to us the areas of our lives that need to be brought further under submission to Him. But none of these things are reasons we should avoid approaching God’s throne in prayer and bringing specific, personal requests before Him.

I’m afraid that in our zeal to reject the “name-it-and-claim-it” beliefs that all you have to do to get something is ask and that if you ask and don’t receive, then you must have had not enough faith, we’ve made it easy to fall into the other extreme of not asking at all. We’ve forgotten the power of prayer—not only in effecting changed outcomes, but also in cultivating intimacy with our Heavenly Father.  But when we understand that God created us to be in relationship with Him and that it is possible to simultaneously hold Him in highest regard and bring petitions—any petitions—before Him, we can begin to see what a gift the invitation to ask things of God is. The God “who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16, ESV) welcomes us to approach Him through Jesus Christ and to lay out our requests before Him.

This is something I have to remind myself of on a regular basis. More often than I would like to admit, I have to consciously take the mental step from simply thinking, for example, “I hope this barrier is removed,” to actually praying, “Lord, will you please make a way here where it seems there isn’t one?” Even for things that seem too miniscule, or too massive, or too selfish, or too silly, I have to remember the importance of asking, even while asking God to conform me into the image of Jesus. Because when I open that conversation with God, I also open the door to a deeper and more enriching relationship with Him.

The ability to ask is a gift God has given us. So what do you need to ask Him for today?

PC: Teresa Cantrell. Used with permission.

The Preparing Christ

There are a lot of cool things about being in a cross-cultural relationship and specifically one that involves Middle Eastern culture. One of those things is the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Scripture through growing in understanding of the place in which much of it was played out. Reading the psalmists cry, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?” (Ps. 121:1, ESV) has a whole new poignancy after you’ve seen the hills of the Holy Land. Reading about Mary’s surrender to God’s plan for her life becomes all the more real after you’ve stood at her home in Nazareth. But it’s not just the place that enlivens one’s understanding of the Bible; it’s the culture as well.      

Throughout high school and college, learning about the “ANE culture,” i.e. the culture of the Ancient Near East, was part of my curriculum. This helped inform my understanding of Scripture by helping me read it in a fuller context. What I didn’t realize until recently, though, is that there are strains of that ancient culture that exist in modern Middle Eastern culture as well. And through my relationship with my fiancé and the resulting cultural exposure, I am gaining a deeper glimpse into the goodness of God in more ways than one.

If you’ve grown up in church or been to a Christian wedding, you’re likely familiar with the fact that marriage was designed by God to be a picture of the relationship that would exist between Jesus and the Church, i.e. the people He purchased out of bondage through His sacrifice of His own perfect life. You might also be familiar with the passages of Scripture where Jesus is referred to or refers to Himself as the bridegroom (see Matthew 9, Mark 2, Luke 5, and John 3). I was well acquainted with all of those as well, but there’s another familiar passage that I had never connected to Jesus’ identity as our bridegroom—until recently.

In John 14, Jesus is speaking with His disciples, those who were arguably the human beings who had the closest relationship to Him during His time on earth. He is nearing His crucifixion and is spending concentrated time at their last meal together speaking with, praying for, and preparing them for the coming dark days. In the midst of this weighty time, Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1-3, ESV).

At first glance this does not seem to be a passage about the picture of marriage. From a twenty-first-century American viewpoint, it seems like a straightforward passage about heaven—that Jesus is going to heaven and that eventually we will be there with Him. But now I think there is so much more to this passage than what is initially apparent to our modern American eyes.

You see, my fiancé and I are currently separated by about 6,000 miles, and as it stands right now we will be until days before our wedding. A few months ago, he left to return to his home country, having completed what he came to my home country to do, and is working and making things ready for our future together. In his home culture, unless young men move away from their hometown for school or a job, they typically live with their families until they get married, and once they become engaged they look for a dwelling of their own and begin intentionally preparing it for their bride-to-be. Such is the case with my fiancé.

Sometimes he even uses the phrase “preparing our home” when he speaks, and it was after a few times of hearing this that it hit me how similar it sounded to Jesus’ words in John 14. 

And that’s when I realized the depth of what Jesus was saying to His disciples. In speaking of preparing a place for them, He was using imagery that would have been thoroughly familiar in their culture; He was alluding to Himself as the Bridegroom, preparing an eternal home for His Bride. He was getting ready to complete what He had come to our home to do, and He would then return to His home to make things ready for our future with Him.

The disciples weren’t too happy about the idea, as we can see by Jesus’ explaining to them why He had to leave. The separation was bound to be difficult since they had to adjust to no longer having their Friend and Savior physically with them. In the same way, the separation is difficult for us today. Even though we have the Holy Spirit within us, I’d wager to say we have all had thoughts something akin to, “If only I could just see Him or hear His voice or feel His touch.”

Likewise, the separation my fiancé and I are experiencing is not easy. I know I am going to be with him soon, but it’s still hard not to be physically present with each other.  But as we’ve been talking every day, I hear updates about the preparations my groom is making in our home, and I am constantly reminded of the preparations my Groom is making for me in my heavenly home. And just as I am waiting with confident expectation for the time when my fiancé and I will be together again, I am reminded to wait in the same confident expectation for the time when my Eternal Groom will bring me to be with Him forever.

I don’t know exactly what it looks like for Jesus to be preparing our future home for us, but if the love and care and intentionality I’ve experienced from my earthly bridegroom is even just a small taste of it, I know it’s going to be beyond our wildest dreams.

To read the Arabic translation of this post, click here.

لقراءة الترجمة العربية لهذا المنشور إضغط هنا.

PC: Jane Morris. Used with permission.

Life after Easter

Have you ever thought about what the day after Easter was like for the disciples? Scripture doesn’t tell us, but we can use some informed imagination to surmise. To say the Sunday after Jesus’ crucifixion was a full day would be an understatement. It started early in the morning with a few women discovering an empty tomb and being told by an angel that Jesus was alive (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:1-6; Luke 24:1-7). The women quickly told the disciples, but not quite believing them, Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves, and sure enough, it was empty (Mark 16:11; Luke 24:11-12; John 20:3-10). Then Jesus met Mary in the garden, and she saw Him with her own eyes (John 20:11-17). Later in the day two others were met by Jesus as they were walking along the road, and once they realized who they were talking to and he had left them, they hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples (Luke 24:13-34). In the evening, Jesus came to where the disciples were huddled together and told them to be ready—more things were going to happen (Luke 24:36-48). Now that’s a day.

If you’ve ever lived through a major event, negatively traumatic or positively momentous, you’ve likely experienced that it wasn’t until after some time had passed, perhaps until the next day after a night’s sleep, that the significance of the event began to sink in. Especially in the case of the disciples, who had gone through arguably the most traumatic day of their lives on Friday, likely their most depressing day on Saturday, and then probably their most exhilarating day on Sunday, the day after Easter would have found them experiencing a great deal of emotional whiplash.

I can only imagine their thoughts and feelings as it began to sink in that Jesus was alive. Everything they had hoped, that then for a while had seemed in vain (Luke 24:21), now would have come roaring back with all the force of the supernatural resurrecting power of God. Add onto that the self-realization that they had been completely obtuse when it came to discerning what Jesus had told them about his death and resurrection (John 20:9), and they surely felt a powerful comingling of elation and embarrassment. But as they recovered from the reeling about-face that they had just taken, the reality of Jesus’ resurrection and what that consequently meant for their own lives must have begun to sink deeply into their beings. If Friday’s cry was “Why?”, Saturday’s rumbling was “What now?”, and Sunday’s refrain was “He is risen!” then Monday’s rumination was a hopeful “So now what now?”

  

In the days that followed, more would be revealed. Jesus would meet with the disciples again to remove Thomas’s doubts (John 20:24-29); He would commission them to “go into all the world” (Mark 16:15); they would witness Him ascend into heaven (Acts 1:6-11); and they would receive the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-3). But that first Monday, none of that had happened yet. They were left to sit and ponder what they had just witnessed, with a new understanding of Scripture that Jesus had imparted to them.

Now, 2000 years later, we have just finished a day of rejoicing that Jesus rose from the dead, displaying victory over sin and death. We have the benefit of knowing Sunday was coming and knowing what happened next, but I’d like to challenge us to spend a moment in the disciples’ shoes and really ponder, with fresh attentiveness to Scripture, the thrilling weight of what Sunday meant—and continues to mean.

For just a few moments, marvel at the perfect plan of God and at the intentional revelation of it to the world throughout all of human history, from the first promise of the Savior to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15) to the angels’ proclamation to the shepherds near Bethlehem (Luke 2:8-14). Then revel in the fact that the realization of this God-written, true story from past to present brings with it the fact that the story extends from present to future. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was not the end of the story; it was the great turning point of human history, and God is continuing to write His story and reveal Himself to us through His Word and His Spirit as He brings all things toward the time of completion.

So today, the day after Easter, as we have come through the grief, come through the silence, and come through the rejoicing, let us settle into reflection that leads to action—reflection on the overarching narrative of God’s universe that we are privileged to be a part of, reflection on the truth that Jesus is ALIVE right at this very moment, reflection on the implications of this truth for our lives, and action to live accordingly.

How should we live in light of the resurrection? I could answer that question, but I’d rather leave it open for you to wrestle with yourself. To help you get started though, here are just a few areas to think about. How does Jesus’ resurrection affect your relationship with God? How does it affect your relationship with other people? How does it affect your communication with God? What does it mean for fear? For grief? For perseverance?  For confidence? For boldness? For compassion? For joy? As you think on these things, feel free to leave a comment below regarding your ruminations, whether they are fresh realizations or helpful reminders.

Jesus is risen. He is not a person in the past tense. He is presently living and calling you to live as well for His glory. I pray you will step into that life and really internalize all of the implications of Jesus’ resurrection, because as it turns out, life after Easter is the best life of all.

To read the Arabic translation of this post, click here.

لقراءة الترجمة العربية لهذا المنشور إضغط هنا.

PC: Anneliese Billings. Used with permission.

100 Posts, 100 Praises

This post marks the 100^th post on An Iris Awaits! It’s hard to believe this journey that started five-and-a-half years ago has been filled with 100 “irises” already! To mark this milestone, I thought I’d do something a little different on the blog today.

Something my mom’s family does when the elder generations hit a major milestone birthday is to present them with a list of things we love about them, matching the number of their age. For instance, when my grandfather turned 80, we each came up with several phrases that showed him how meaningful he was to us and what a difference he makes in our lives until we reached 80 things. Some were serious, some were silly, but all were sincere.

Performing such an exercise is not only good for the recipient, it’s good for the givers as well, because it causes us to focus our minds on showing gratitude and appreciation for one we love, on actually articulating years of feelings that might not always be expressed. As I’ve written in another post, keeping an attitude of gratitude is important in the life of a Christian, and making a point to express gratitude helps us enlarge that attitude in our lives.

So today, in this 100^th post, we’re going to look at 100 praises to the Almighty God. Praise typically connotes appreciation for who someone is, while thanksgiving relates to what someone does, but when it comes to God, the two are often intertwined because it is difficult to praise Him for Who He is without also being thankful that He is those things. So you ready? Hold onto your seats, ‘cause here we go…

1. God is Love (1 John 4:8)

2. God is Supreme (Ephesians 1:19-21)

3. God is Just (Romans 3:26)

4. God is Good (Psalm 73:1)

5. God is Kind (Romans 2:4)

6. God is Always Present (Psalm 139:7-10)

7. God is Wise (Romans 11:33; Job 12:13)

8. God is Eternal (Isaiah 40:28)

9. God is All-knowing (1 John 3:20; Romans 11:33-34)

10. God is Creator (Genesis 1:1)

11. God is Creative (Psalm 139:13-15)

12. God is Committed (Hosea 2:20)

13. God is Gracious (Exodus 34:6)

14. God is Merciful (Deuteronomy 4:31)

15. God is Gentle (Isaiah 40:11)

16. God is Protective (Psalm 18:30)

17. God is Provider (Matthew 6:30)

18. God is Healer (Jeremiah 30:17; Psalm 41:3)

19. God is King of Kings (Revelation 17:14)

20. God is Righteous (Psalm 116:5)

21. God is Holy (Revelation 4:8)

22. God is Sovereign (Psalm 47:8)

23. God is Relational (John 15:15)

24. God is Constant (Malachi 3:6)

25. God is Defender of the Weak (Deuteronomy 10:18)

26. God is Truth (John 14:6)

27. God is Patient (2 Peter 3:9)

28. God is the Way (John 14:6)

29. God is Steadfast (Psalm 25:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:5)

30. God is Father of the Fatherless (Psalm 68:5)

31. God is Savior (Psalm 68:19)

32. God is our Eternal Husband (Hosea 2:16, 19; Isaiah 54:5)

33. God is the Life (John 11:25)

34. God is Redeemer (Psalm 103:4)

35. God is Transcendent (Isaiah 55:9)

36. God is Imminent (Psalm 139:1-4)

37. God is Near to the Brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18)

38. God is Sustainer (Psalm 54:4)

39. God is Revealer of Mysteries (Daniel 2:47)

40. God is Deliverer (Psalm 40:17)

41. God is a Musician (Zephaniah 3:17)

42. God is an Author (Acts 3:15)

43. God is a Maker of Promises (Genesis 28:15; 1 Kings 9:5)

44. God is a Keeper of Promises (Joshua 21:45; 1 Kings 8:15; Genesis 21:1)

45. God is a Designer (Job 38-39) 

46. God is Joyous (Zephaniah 3:17)

47. God is All-Seeing (Proverbs 15:3)

48. God is Available (Deuteronomy 4:7)

49. God is Persistent (Romans 10:21)

50. God is Approachable (Hebrews 4:16)

51. God is Light (1 John 1:5)

52. God is a God of Purity (Psalm 12:6; Psalm 19:8)

53. God is Shepherd (Psalm 23:1; Ezekiel 34:15)

54. God is Guider (Psalm 48:14)

55. God is Faithful (1 Corinthians 10:13)

56. God is Atoner (Psalm 65:3)

57. God is Peace (Ephesians 2:14)

58. God is Master (Jude 1:4; Luke 8:24)

59. God is Lord of Lords (Deuteronomy 10:17)

60. God is our Banner (Exodus 17:15)

61. God is Communicator; He is not silent (2 Peter 1:21; Ephesians 3:5)

62. God is Warrior (Proverbs 21:31)

63. God is Sanctifier (Leviticus 20:8)

64. God is Intimate (Psalm 139:2; Psalm 145:18; Psalm 44:21)

65. God is Discipliner (Hebrews 12:6)

66. God is Relatable (Hebrews 4:15)

67. God is Wholly Other (Psalm 50:21)

68. God is Hope (Psalm 71:5)

69. God is Active (Psalm 145:4; Isaiah 64:4)

70. God is Emotive (John 11:35; Luke 19:41)

71. God is Shield (Psalm 84:11)

72. God is Powerful (Job 37:23)

73. God is Refuge (Psalm 46:1)

74. God is Caring (1 Peter 5:7)

75. God is Refiner (Zechariah 13:9)

76. God is Comforter (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

77. God is Judge (Psalm 50:6; Psalm 9:8)

78. God is Witness (Romans 8:16)

79. God is Guarantee (2 Corinthians 1:22)

80. God is Tester (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

81. God is Slow to Anger (Numbers 14:18)

82. God is Attentive (Psalm 145:19; Psalm 34:15)

83. God is Restorer (Psalm 23:3)

84. God is our Seal (2 Corinthians 1:22)

85. God is Intercessor (Romans 8:26-27)

86. God is Able (Hebrews 7:25)

87. God is Always Awake (Psalm 121:4)

88. God is Compassionate (James 5:11)

89. God is Justifier (Romans 3:26)

90. God is a Firm Foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11)

91. God is the Source (Romans 11:36)

92. God is Victorious (Revelation 5:5)

93. God is Pursuer (Ezekiel 34:11; Luke 19:10)

94. God is Forgiver (1 John 1:9)

95. God is Delighted (Psalm 35:27)

96. God is Giver of Good Gifts (James 1:17)

97. God is Sacrificial (Philippians 2:6)

98. God is Helper (Hebrews 13:6; John 14:26)

99. God is Avenger (Romans 12:19)

100. God is our Song (Exodus 15:2)

Praise be to God! 

Calm amidst Corona

Likely, you’re tired of hearing about the newest coronavirus. But don’t worry—despite the title, this post is less about the coronavirus and more about Christ. Regardless of your opinions about the virus, I’d imagine that you’ve felt at least some uneasiness in recent days. If you’re like me, you’re less worried about catching the virus and more worried about how the reaction to it will affect current and future plans.

It’s easy to get caught up in worries about the unknown. We are finite creatures, after all. But giving into those worries is not something we have to do. In the face of the unknown, we can choose to take a different path. And the best thing to do is to intentionally fix our eyes on the One who knows all. Instead of fixating on the news, feeding our minds and souls a steady diet of social media, and passively letting the worries build inside of us, we can face them head on by actively focusing on the Truth of who God is and what that means for us.

-          God is all-knowing. That means that not only did none of this take Him by surprise, but also He knows what tomorrow holds—and next week—and next month—and you get the picture. (See 1 John 3:20, Romans 11:33, Job 37:16, etc.)

-          God is outside of time. That means that He is already fully present in our future. Mind-blowing, I know, but that’s why He’s the infinite One and we’re not. (See Genesis 1:2, Psalm 90:2, John 1:1, Deuteronomy 31:8, etc.) 

-          His mercies are new every morning. That means that regardless of what we face in a given day, He gives us a fresh dose of mercy to sustain us. (See Lamentations 3:22-23)

Put all of this together, and we see that the One who knows all things and is already literally ahead of us is also the One who provides us what we need. We’re not left in the hands of an incompetent Being, one who is caught off guard by hardships we might face. Nor are we left in the hands of a cruel or apathetic Being, who delights in our struggle or couldn’t care less about us.

Jesus, the Son of God and God Himself, came and dwelt among us, His creatures, as one of us. The God who is outside of time experienced life within time in the person of Jesus Christ. He faced spiritual oppression, literal storms, physical exhaustion, and grief, just to name a few—so He knows. Not only because He already knew all but because He chose to know experientially as well.

For those of us who have accepted the gift of His sacrifice on our behalf, i.e. are trusting in His perfect life, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection instead of in our own good deeds to have right standing before God, we also have the indwelling presence of His Spirit with us every. single. moment. That means you’re not walking into any situation without God already having been there and without God accompanying you intimately—oh, and without God praying for you. That’s right! Jesus is right now interceding for us before God’s throne in heaven, and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know what to pray (Romans 8:26-27, 34).

Maybe you don’t know what this feels like, though. Maybe you’ve never experienced the peace that passes understanding, the confidence that comes from knowing that there is a God who loves you—loves you enough to suffer injustice and die in your place so that you could have a relationship with Him. Maybe you live your days with no sense of purpose and without hope for today, much less for the future. If that’s the case, there is no better time than now to run to God and let Him teach you. Let Him show you why you lack peace, why you feel hopeless, why you can’t shake that fear of the future.

If you want to do that—to seek after the God who is pursuing you with a relentless love—but you’re not sure how, please reach out, and I would love to help you find the way. If you don’t have another way of contacting me, you can leave a comment at the end of this post. The settings are such that no one else will see it besides me unless I publish it (which I won’t). But be sure to let me know who you are, so I can respond!

We live in a world that has fallen from its original God-fashioned design, a world in which evil exists, humans go to war against each other, and viruses lead to panic, illness, and death. But followers of Jesus know that this world is not our ultimate home and that whatever struggles we face here pale in comparison to the eternal joy that awaits us when we finally see our Beloved Savior face to face and can worship Him purely without having to fight against the remnants of our sinful nature.

So if you’re a follower of Jesus, when you feel the worry rising in your spirit and the tension building in your body, preach to yourself the truths of Scripture to remind yourself about Who you serve and Who is holding you always in His hand. And if you’re not a follower of Jesus, don’t ignore the anxiety you feel in facing the unknown. Let it be a force that pushes you to seek the answers and peace that only God can provide.

In the uncertainty of our lives that has been brought into sharper focus in these coronavirus times, look to Christ, take up His easy yoke, and rest in the calmness of His presence each day.

The Waiting Christ

The Christmas season that we came out of just a few months ago is a time of emphasizing the humanity of Christ. We emphasize His deity during this time, as well, as we recognize Him as Emmanuel, i.e. God With Us. But as we think of the incarnation, or God becoming flesh, we marvel at the fact that the God of all there is willingly subjected Himself to becoming one of us, to putting on a body of flesh and blood, so that He could restore all things to their rightful design, including but not limited to our relationship with Him.

When we think of Jesus’ humanity, we often think of how he needed sleep, needed food, and felt emotions such as gladness, wonder, grief, and anger. But as I was reading Scripture one day, another way in which He is like us jumped out at me, one that I hadn’t thought of before. The verse can be found in Hebrews chapter 10. Verses 12 and 13 read, “But when this priest [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool” (NIV).  Did you catch that one little clause? He waits.

This verse speaks of the time after Jesus had completed the sacrifice, after He said, “It is finished.” And yet He waits. He has already achieved the victory, yet He waits for His enemies to be completely vanquished. Lest we think Him impotent or His victory ineffective, we see that He is sitting in a position of authority—at the right hand of God.  So why does He wait? Well, as is the case many times, we don’t completely know, or at least we don’t fully understand. We know that He is waiting for the right time as is set by God’s own authority (Acts 1:7); why that time is the right time is beyond our understanding.  Regardless of why, though, we know that He willingly waits until that right time arrives.

He does not try to usurp the Father’s authority by rushing into things or coming up with a different plan as Abram and Sarai did in waiting for their promised offspring (Gen. 16), or as we so often do. Instead, he submits to the Father’s plan and patiently waits until the time is right. The God who is outside of time uses it to accomplish His perfect plan in our world, and He waits.

This is not the only time we see Jesus waiting, though. In John 7, he waited to go to the festival until after His disciples had gone ahead because his “time ha[d] not yet fully come” (John 7:8, NIV). In John 11, after hearing that His dear friend Lazarus was ill, He waited two days before journeying to see Lazarus’s sisters and raise Lazarus from the dead.

Well of course Jesus could wait, you might be thinking. He’s God, so He’s all-knowing and all-wise, so He knows why it’s important to wait for the right time. That’s true. But it’s also true that because He is God, He is all-powerful and sovereign, and could just as easily change when the right time is. Yet He waits.

Okay, but so what? What does it matter to us? It matters a great deal, because it means that among all the other ways in which Jesus can identify with us, He also knows what it feels like to be patient and to wait for something expected to happen that just isn’t happening yet. Plus, He was tempted to gain the kingdoms of the earth on a quicker route, one that would avoid having to die, but one that would involve worshiping His Enemy rather than His Father. So He knows what it is like to face the temptation to take matters into our own hands, to speed up God’s timeline and try to change God’s plan.

So as we wait for things, whether things we might not be guaranteed to receive or witness, or things that are certainly coming, we can draw strength from the fact that we are not alone and we are not being forced to wait by an impersonal being who likes to torment us creatures. No, we are invited to wait by a loving God who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves, who in His perfect wisdom has crafted a beautiful story for our lives, who loves us deeply and eternally, and who chose to experience life as we do so that we can know He understands.

If you’re waiting for something today, even if you’ve been waiting for years and years, I pray that you will turn your eyes to Jesus who is at this very moment waiting too. As He is waiting for the final fulfillment of His kingdom, He is also interceding for you as you wait. Take courage in that, my friend, and worship the waiting Christ as you patiently wait as well. 

To read the Arabic translation of this post, click here.

.لقراءة الترجمة العربية لهذا المنشور إضغط هنا

PC: Pam Galagan. Used with permission.