A note to a friend
I'm glad you've seen something about Christ that is "thrilling". The whole of life is an adventure. Even the bits that feel least like they're an adventure. Even the days that feel like purgatory, those are days of adventure also. In John 11 we have Christ "hiding" himself from Mary and Martha and Lazarus. God doesn't play silly "games" with us as if our lives were a shallow existence but he does hide himself, the prophet Isaiah said. It's part of the cosmic "game". It isn't that he wakes in the morning and says, "Let's see who I'll hide from today." But as part of a vast cosmic enterprise involving the entire human family he deliberately chooses "not to be there." A single life may not be big enough to explain why he chooses "not to be there" but the cosmic size and nature of his glorious purpose would if we could know it all (and one day we'll get the big picture).
To say that God "hides" himself is good biblical speech (Isaiah 45:15) but while the hiding is real it is never permanent nor is it ever spiteful.
For each of us—for you—the challenge is to trust that there is this big picture that you're a part of. God is writing a "drama" and you have a place in it. But your place is given significance not by your independent and isolated existence. You don't exist that way. No one does. We're part of a human family. One day when the world is new you'll go to a place where the cosmic Bible is kept, you’ll type in your name and the computer will take you to where your piece of the narrative begins. You'll read about yourself (without fear or shame—for those will be done away then) and you'll see how your particular story fitted into the whole narrative. You'll surely say to yourself, "Hrrrmphh, I could have done better than that." I know I’ll surely say that. But while you might recognise that you knew what it was to fail, you’ll know that you weren’t ashamed of the colours you sailed under. At that time you’ll be able to read the whole narrative of life as one piece and see that even the dull days and the gloomy spells that came down on you, the hard battles—along with the pleasures and joys—they all had their place.
Whether we presently see it well or not, or tell it well or not, we have a Story that begs to be told well and honoured by cheerful loyalty. It’s a Story that lifts the heart and transforms lives; it’s one that steadies the purposes and enables the stubborn little human to stay afloat even while drifting among titanic waves of trouble and perplexity. This is the "gospel of God".
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.