Thanks for the comments on "Land of No". I am grateful that there is freedom to see past sadness, and there is an unusually bright victory in your mind and heart- you are blessed person. (I am a bit envious of your insight!)
Some thoughts:
While it is true that every "NO" has a "YES" somewhere in there, I am not sure it is the "YES" that is automatically infused with the grace of God. Let's face it: WE MAKE MISTAKES. And sometimes (dare I say often?) the mistakes are made out of a desire to do something right.
We say NO when we were supposed to say YES. Plain and simple. God wants us to do one thing, we do another. There is hope down one road, we go down another. These answers, however, are not as plain and simple to discern.
Another thought:
Grieving the loss of potentiality may not be our right. Often it is our own decisions that have brought us to a place of regret, and God's grace does not come without consequences. Any perusal of the Old Testament will bring the realization that the love of God is quite conditional, and since we can never fulfill the conditions, we need Jesus. We enjoy grace because God chooses to give it. To mistake grace for something haphazardly thrown onto our lives (God has to cause he said he would!?) is to forget the intention, deliberation and extreme necessity of the cross. If grace was cheap, Jesus would have stayed alive, the temple would be standing tall, and there would be a lot fewer lambs in the world.
Transformation is not an option, we get it no matter what - the question is what do we want to be transformed to? And how do we know that the "YES" that was shouted from the rooftops is going to change us into light and life? We very well may have dug our own graves.
Does this mean that redemption is impossible? Of course not! What it means is that redemption is VALUABLE and since it is, we must guard it and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
I guess that is a good example: If I say "NO" to fear, then potentially I have said no to the reality of the terrifying transforming holiness of God.
Perhaps we just all need to say "yes" to going through subtlety. I read somewhere God works there. :)
1 comment:
I agree -- who knows where grace will show up? Part of the graciousness of grace is that it is not entirely predictable (although reliable), and I would like to think the Power of the Cross extends to uknown places (and the subtle ones), even particularly there. I am not sure if we are all "transformed" as a matter of fact, however, although we are "formed" according to something (whatever is the object of our worship, I would think). Many things want to perpetuate themselves, and require effort by us to alter their courses, and the new way of being is painful for a time, because we have lost something in the abandonment of old friends, whether that be a habit, part of our mind, a feeling, etc.
I just came across a great quote by Shopenhauer in a book by Andrew Solomon: "We find pleasure much less pleasurable, pain much more painful than we had anticipated. We require at all times a certain quantity of care or sorrow or want, as a ship requires ballast, to keep on a straight course. ...[T]he polar opposite of suffering [is] boredom."
And a Russian proverb: If you wake up feeling no pain, you know you're dead. There is grace in pain, and even death.
Just some random thoughts to annoy you. ;-)
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