united for eternity

I talked about this in chapel the other day and thought, "may as well post this on here." And, as you can see, that is what I did!

This past year, God has been teaching me the deeper meaning of what it means to be brother and sisters in Christ. Of course, I have failed time and time again, but I have written down some thought that I would like to share with you. The title brother and sister in Christ is tossed around too gently in a lot of Christian settings. The meaning of ‘brother and sister’ is a profoundly deep one. It means we are all connected to each other through Christ. We have all died to ourselves, been unified in Christ and therefore are one with each other. Christ has married the Church. And the Church, the body of Christ, is made up of brothers and sisters. Through his love and sacrifice we become one with Christ, and through that with each other. 

For believers, Jesus becomes the mediator between us. So what does this mean? Bonhoeffer explains it as such; “It means, first, that a Christian needs others because of Jesus Christ. It means, second, that a Christian comes to others only through Jesus Christ. It means, third, that in Jesus Christ we have been chosen from eternity, accepted in time, and united for eternity.” United for eternity. How often do we see our friends or those ‘hello acquaintances’ in the hall and think, “Hey I’m going to be united with them for eternity!” We don’t often think like that but what an exciting thought! We are all so blessed. So many of us live in this community of believers, go to chapel, go to church with each other, go to prayer meetings, eat and hang out with each other. And yet there is so much separation. We live bound by the psychological and social ‘rules’ of the world when we should see those in Christ through the spirit. Of course I am not suggesting that we abandon all common etiquette and become socially awkward. But if we learn to be less like the world even in this one area, think about how unified the body of Christ could become! In practical ways, it could mean trying to understand where your roommate is coming from when she continually leaves her dirty clothes on the floor. Or maybe it could mean befriending someone outside of your friend group that is generally ostracized. Or being patient with someone when you’re working on a group project. Instead of judging these people based on minor negative personality traits, getting angry, and talking about them to your friends, think about about them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Someone who you will be united with forever. The perspective changes a bit and you immediately start seeing them in light of their spirit, and these things that annoy you suddenly aren’t quite as important. It amazes me that in a community where we all claim to profess the love and grace of Jesus, there is so much judgment, gossip, and indifference to the people that surround us. And I, unfortunately, can not exclude myself from this. 

I was talking to a friend the other day and she said God spoke to her very clearly about this one day. She was talking to someone and was about to say something not entirely uplifting about someone else and then suddenly Jesus spoke to her saying, “She’s a person and she’s my child and your sister. See her as I do.” If we cannot see people, especially our brothers and sisters like Jesus does then we do not fully belong in the body of Christ. There is so much separation, strife, dissension and hurt caused among Christians because we fail to understand the depth of our unity with other believers. Without Christ, there is conflict between God and man and between man and man. Christ is our Mediator between God and his children and between our brothers and sisters. 

The Reformers described our death and life as being found outside of ourselves. They said, “Our righteousness is an “alien righteousness,” a righteousness that comes from outside of us.” What they meant by this was that the Christian is dependent on the Word of God spoken to Him. He is pointed outward, to the Word that comes to him. In ourselves, we are destitute and dead. Bonhoeffer again writes: “But God had put this Word into the mouth of others in order that it may be communicated to us. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find his living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. He needs his brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker that the Christ in the word of his brother. And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation.” What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. 

And I will quote Bonhoeffer again on community, “The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity.” Let us work towards brotherly community through humbly accepting that Christ is the only reason we have one another. 

By God’s grace may we cease to see each other on the emotional and psychological level, but that we may see each other spiritually, until Christ is the only thing between us. 

looking back only to enhance looking forward

Remembering what I wrote on the airplane, moving to Canada 2 years ago. It was hard to leave home and difficult to enter into a new culture but I am encouraged by the excitement and hope I held for the future. God always has us in the place that is most right for us. 

The sun soaks my face and it is radiant. It seems to penetrate the ice-cracked window that so fragilely separates me from the altitude of 30,000 feet and unfathomable, choking cold. Up here as I lay my face on the window, letting the sun blind me because I love it, I can see everything. I see the clouds below me and when they part, I see ice and land and more icebergs than is imaginable. They really are like a fleet of sailboats drifting, ever so steadily, to their unknown destination. They look lazy and viscous all at once. Up here I can see the white peaks and the cold, almost marine blue of the lower part of the iceberg, the part that isn't visible down there. It is the same blue that you sometimes see on the upper part of the windshields on minivans in Canada, which is where we are going. "Going home" I said earlier. Maybe if I start calling it that now, it will feel more like it quicker.

Up here I can also look across at a vast "floor" of cloud - solid and yet completely capable of suddenly being opaque. I keep thinking about cheesy Jesus films where you see him walking across the moving clouds in billowing white robes. And I keep wishing it will come true. And it has. God is here, sitting beside me, in the hearts of varying people on this plane, even walking towards me on the clouds. And he is smiling, saying, "Come, Katy. Come home." And I am coming. What is most beautiful to me is that I can find God anywhere and he is home to me. As I gazed into the Sun, I could feel his presence so strongly - soothing, gentle, encouraging and I was so overwhelmed by his blessings that continue and evolve into even greater blessings. How dear he is to me, how precious a friend. I also felt his strength take my weakness and hammer it down, refine it in his flame of power and pour the scalding hot, melting liquid into my body. His energy, flowing through my veins, pulsing with heat and excitement, churning with the quick pain of surrendering and once cooled, refreshing me with the steady promise that comes with being surrendered. Then my mind was filled with ideas and prayers and hopes for my new year, a year that is dedicated fully to God's glory. I prayed for many things for friends, family, for myself... and then I smiled. I want all of those to come true. I want my friends to have joy, truth, courage, to make wonderful, new friends. I want my parents to be welcomed home, to feel they belong and to impact those around them. I want Bethany to love every minute of her music, to treasure her best friends and the love they pour into her. I want a job, I want a friend. And then the most reassuring thought: If none of those come true, I have hope and a love that will never wax and wane, a love that is selfless and doesn't need anything, not even me. But HE wants ME. So much. And I realize the basic thing, the only thing I really want or need is the strength to follow his will totally and completely. After that all things will fall into their proper place. But my heart must also be in its proper place. And that is my goal for this year.

I asked God if he could just take this plane in his fingers and pull it right up to Him and he said not yet. And I don't really want that. Not because I don't want to see him, not because it isn't my greatest desire but because I have life, energy, strength in my blood, and it is not my own. It is a gift and I want to share it. I no longer want to be ashamed of the gospel sometimes but so proud of my faith at other times. I no longer want to be constrained and stifled by my human desires, ambitions, conscientiousness and fear. I want to be God's. And he who began a good work in me is faithful to complete it. What a promise, what a hope to cling to. So I will give, and God will replenish. My dad just reminded me of the verse God gave me for this year. Paul says he has found the secret for being content in all situations. I'm not sure what the secret was but I have found one. For me, the secret of being content is loving my eyes because Jesus is looking out of them. When Jesus is no longer confined to just my heart but he is living in each and every part of me... speaking through my mouth, touching through my hands, listening through my ears, loving selflessly through my heart, seeing through my eyes, THEN, then will I have found the secret. Now I must only begin living like I have found it. And what a perfect opportunity, a new season, fresh life, to begin. To begin the journey that never stops. To follow on the road, to step in the footsteps of my LORD.

When I see the "invisible" part of the icebergs, I wonder if that is what God feels like, looking down on us, seeing all of us that is not visible on earth - knowing the good, knowing the bad and loving us. I see him getting so excited to start chiseling away on that block of ice, to create something beautiful, without blemish and as he works, revealing it fully, showing every part, complete and incomplete, to the world. And they are blinded by its beauty. Not because it is perfect, but because it is flawed and willing to be reformed.

Here's to a future full of goodbyes and an eternity full of hellos.