Relief Good

Saturday night. In the recent past I would have been glad to be out, seeking relief in the form of Marlboro Reds and whiskey on the rocks.

In the FAR past, I would have imagined I would have sought relief by hanging out with friends over the same said cigarettes, only we wouldn’t mind what sort of swill we were drinking at the time. Colt 45 comes to mind. Yech.

Anyway, in the spirit of Creation, I was actually thinking of making something this evening. I posted a picture yesterday on my social feed, and now I feel like I need to produce something of value, in the form of an article on my WordPress. It has been a while since I posted anything there. Actually, I should take a look at my recent posts… but I don’t think I want to, because part of me likes to surprise myself with re-learning what I was actually already saying in the past. Or, in other words, through all that’s been going on these past weeks, I say, this beautiful leap year month so far, I’d like to know what remains – what trains of thought, what active mindsets do remain?

Where am I making myself home, as of late? Has there been any change? If not, has there been any improvement on what has remained?

I already know the answer to that question – I’m being brought from glory to glory, being transformed by the renewing of my mind, and even if I think there’s a trace of daftness to me saying it happens even when I don’t see it or feel it, I believe it to be true.

I know it’s true. My scope limited by my senses invalidates any claim that nothing good is going on. The strongest currents flow far beneath the surface – or, so I’m told.

There exists momentum, whether we see it or not – indeed, eye has not seen and ear has not heard the awesome things that Christ has in line for each and every one of us. Quite frankly, I’m already amazed and bamboozled as it is, imagining (and, in so doing, trying in vain to contain) the infinite life we have in Christ, the eternal love we enjoy here and now, unto eternity. We’re seeing it manifest in leaps and bounds, but I imagine God lovingly saying, ‘You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.’

Note: I DO remember saying something like that in the past. I suppose the sense of wonder and the sense of awe continues to take root and make fruit in my life.

It’s true. We have much more to see, much more to learn. And, with Christ always with us in that we are alive in Him and He is alive in us, the most mundane of activities down to the wildest, most twisted circumstances do not affect us in the least – or, at least compared to the fact that what really shakes us (certainly in a good way) is, as the song goes, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God.

I still hold to what Timothy Keller said, when he said that Christians ought to be the most nuanced of people, praising near nothing, and bashing near nothing. For I am in total agreement to the Truth of the matter being that Christ is infinitely primary compared to the rest of creation, with all that’s ‘good’ and ‘bad’, all secondary in the sense that Creation can never hope to match Creator. Now that we have the Creator, nothing else, certainly nothing in all of creation, comes close to even fully captivating and embracing us.

This glory is pervasive and is apparent, even as I insist on living out my old programming, which insists that there is something left to be had from a couple of smokes and a good, stiff drink.

To be honest, there’s a lot left in the old programming that persists in assuming that it has any sort of hold over me. Pornography, smut and raw sex for reasons other than that prescribed by the Word being the most influential, up until now. It’s a shame, considering I wasn’t able to shake this off completely ever since the first dirty magazines I saw when I was, what, 10 or 11? But that’s the tip of the iceberg of obsolete thinking that’s trying to weigh down on me even at my age, as if to say that it still has some significant influence over me.

Then again, maybe it’s my view of this obsolete thinking that is, in itself, obsolete? I’m reminded of the Truth in that I am subscribed to an eternal, Living Word now, walking in the Spirit – taking steps here and there in the flesh, but united as one with the Spirit, now and always, nevertheless.

By way of writing tonight, I am duly reminded. The fact of the matter is that everything of my being which was tainted by death and sin and incapacitating knowledge of Good and Evil – all this was erased, obliterated, disintegrated and banished from me as far as the east is from the west… This was the case when Christ died, for Christ became sin – He did not just (1) take our sin away, and (2) become the sin of a select few – Christ BECAME sin, and when He died, sin and its power over us died, leaving no trace of our previous form fully saturated with sin.

The fact.. the TRUTH of the matter is that Christ served as Sacrifice for us all, representative of us all, a true propitiation for sin, so when He died, so we died, and when He rose again, so we rose, not as reanimated zombies with new power but same form, but as new creations – once dead inside, now full of life, in that the Spirit of God dwells in all who receive God’s complete and everlasting love through Christ. He is now so close to us that we are one, closer to us than the air we breathe, closer to us than any old thought or circumstance, any old form or joy or despair that would lay claim to an iota of our being.

This is the Truth, the Word, the Living Word that embraces me, that which I hold on to, a Truth that lasts, standing tall in and through all, Creator superior to the constraints of created space and time, to infinity… and beyond.

(Thank you, Buzz.)

I don’t know, I don’t see myself going beyond this right now. I’ll rest in this Truth.

What a relief.