Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who
has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given
a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him
are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
As we take a closer look today at all that we've been doing, all that we've accomplished, and how we can improve for the future, let's give thanks to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Deism
is a constant temptation for us, as we walk in the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to
walk in each day. Though we probably don't imagine God booting up
his laptop at
But what about all those things that seem to get in our way for doing all the good works we've planned? Surely, God is out to lunch when those happen! Those twenty emails that arrived after I just caught up. Those jira issues that seem to come in faster than we can fix them.
Our God is not just Lord of the finished product in all its glory, but over the entire process, however frustrating or time consuming it may seem sometimes. We want all that is glorious now, all at once, apart from inconveniences, apart from pain. Our Creator is not only interested in our software passing all the tests, but our very hearts. When push comes to shove, it is our attitudes and character that God gives priority in his heavenly triage. We need constant debugging. He has taken ownership over our development, even when He isn't to blame for the bugs we'd rather call "features" in our hearts, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.
He is much more patient with us than we are with Him. He is a God who pleases to take His time. He took six days to call all things good, savoring the last day as best. He delighted in the development process, when He could have just clicked on a shortcut. His Spirit took over a thousand years to inscripturate the Holy Scripture. He endured thousands of years of rebellion until time was appointed to labor in birth with His promised Son. The Son learned the obedience of an eternal priest for us through the things he suffered. And it pleased His Father to take time to crush the Son on our behalf.
Look at the bigger picture now. The whole creation still groans with childbirth pains for our glorification. We are participants in that new creation, the regeneration of all things. Christ is the firstborn and His church is the center of that new cosmos to come. We are the temple from which His glory will fill the earth. Every day, new stones are being made alive, sons of Abraham, crying out, declaring His glory.
Programming should be for us an act of faith that God
is using to build His church. We are not just IT support. We are
Can't
you hear the Lamb in heaven breaking the seals of His scroll across the globe,
shaking all that remains to be shaken? (Rev 5:9) Countless peoples are
worshipping God in their own tongue. Praise the Lord!
I wish my name were a palindrome, like Bob or Anna. Then if I were dyslexic, I wouldn't have to worry about whether I was spelling my name backwards! My name is a translingual phonemic palindrome. Eric is ancient Norse for "complete ruler." Pronounced in reverse, Eric approximates "Kyrie" which is Latin/Greek for "lord."
Speaking of names. I've been having an unusual difficulty signing my name recently. Is that symptomatic of struggle with identity? I've been particularly messing up on my 'y''. Why? Shouldn't my own signature be second nature? Every time I sign one of those electronic signature pads, like at Wal-Mart, I imagine the image being sent digitally to some centralized image processing server, matching against a history of previous signature patterns, and returning "Authentication Passed" a second later.
It's hard for me to think that messing up on my signature doesn't matter. But isn't it most important that *I* am the one who is signing, not that an image can be matched to some approximation? Someone, afterall, not myself could "fake" my signature. I should be free to sign my name anyway I feel, right? But how am I expected to communicate that I am myself to others? There is something about a person's signature that seems binding for the future, as if to change it would be to break some kind of covenant agreement with society. What implications might this have, if we view man as God's personal signature?
Every so often my friend, Phil asks, "So when are you coming? It's time for you to visit us again." The last time I visited was last year right after Katrina hit. I watched his family mobilize others in the church to house huricane refugees. I was due for another visit.
Phil helped me carry my bags and clothes into the guest room. When we opened the door, it appeared that several items were still on the bed. My initial thought was, "Oh, is this not where I'm staying?" Phil asked his wife Amy. She explained that she had not yet taken the time to cleanup the room after their son's birthday party. I thought it was funny that she had not cleared off the bed in expectation of my coming. I told her it made me feel like I was part of their family that she didn't feel anxious about making everything look all perfect just for me. Sometimes you know you're loved when you don't receive special treatment. I'd much rather people feel they can be "at home" around me than running a hotel in their home.