So I'm sitting in Treutlen County right now. It's good to be home, but it's been a really busy day. I woke up at ten this morning and drove over to the middle school gym (never thought I'd be inside that place with a purpose again) to start prepping for the biggest youth rally to every hit this place...biggest to my knowledge, at least. 2.6 hours away in Athens, all of my cymbal buddies were doing work at Redcoat auditions. By the time this post is up and circulated, the news about results will have circulated, so congrats to all you guys that made the line. Carry on the good name...r I will hunt you down and loosen your straps. Have fun playing with THOSE in a show.
Suffice to say that I'm really freakin' exhausted. Wouldn't trade a minute of it, either. I'll sacrifice a day to see the message of grace get to that many people. Ben spoke a lot from Romans 8 tonight, so here's some good stuff from that chapter:
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation of itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Romans 8:18-21
Suffering stinks. It's not always constant, but it's always in the back of our heads - kind of like that cowlick that we all get in our hair every once in a while. I've learned a few things in my 20 years on this planet; not nearly enough to feel like I can call myself wise, but enough to say that I make the same mistakes a lot less frequently. Life is a series of mountaintops and valleys. If you're in a valley, keep pushing, because a mountain is likely coming. If you're on a mountaintop, go ahead and get prepared, because on this side of Glory...well, lets just say that none of us have legs strong enough to jump from mountaintop to mountaintop. It's a really annoying cycle. I'm pretty tired of it, to tell you the truth. If you want to get biblical though, Paul points out that this suffering, this crap that we go through, is not even worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as the glory that Jesus is going to reveal in us. Creation is sick just like we are, burdened and belabored by sin. Just like we have to fight it every day, so does the rest of creation. And like a child of God hates sin, so does creation. It's waiting. It's hoping. It's looking forward to that day when everything is going to be made new.
“For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
Romans 8:22,23
See? Creation is groaning. It wants Jesus to come back and complete the work in us that He started. All that's left to be done is one finishing touch: the adoption. The redemption of our bodies. I'm so freakin' ready for that. Every single day I have to fight sin. I have to fight with my mind and my heart. My spirit doesn't want to sin...it's repulsed by it. It hates the very thought of it. If my spirit was all that I was, that would be great. Unfortunately for me, I'm stuck in this fallen, sinful body. One day though, this body will be changed. Jesus will come back and complete my redemption by giving me a regenerate body to match my regenerate heart. I'll be completely Jesus-rebuilt from the ground up. And creation will be to.
“For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”
Romans 8:25
I'm not a seminary grad, and I don't think you have to be to understand everything in the Bible. I don't think this one is that difficult. I think this is just Paul reminding us that we have a lot to look forward to. The church is the most energized and powerful when we're looking toward Jesus. Looking toward Jesus is looking toward Heaven, looking toward home. It's easy to just sit down and quit. I feel like, from personal experience, there is a big misconception about the point in time that Christians sit down and quit. I don't think we quit when things get rough. I think we sit down and quit when things aren't. If life stinks, it's easy to look forward to Heaven. It's easy when you're in those situations to think, “wow, if I was home, this wouldn't even be an issue.” When things are going great on earth though, we kind of forget that this is a hotel and not a home. We were never meant to stay here. You can stay in a five star hotel when you go in a trip, but a hotel is still a hotel; you can't live there. Eventually, you want to go home. That's what I try and do sometimes though. I try to bunk down in a nice hotel and not leave, oblivious to the fact that I'm on a journey homeward. Staying in the hotel, staying where things are nice temporally...that's not having hope. That's being captivated by the things I can see.
Just some stuff that I thought about during that message. Romans 8 is a great chapter of a great book. In a great book. Go figure. It's pretty influential, too, what with being the Word of God and all. Here's a related verse to leave you guys with:
“People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”
Hebrews 11:14-16
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