You might tell me that I can pray.
Yes, prayer is good. But sometimes, I treat prayer like God is a Genie in a
bottle and I get only 3 wishes. I
had better make them good…(and God had better answer them). Or, I make a list on a clipboard of all
the things I request of the Lord.
Then, I stand there with my clipboard and ask God where we are on this
or that.
Of course prayer should not be this way.
Lately, I’ve been trying to visualize God on his throne and
me dragging my ailing friends into the throne room to lay them at His feet and
beg for His mercy, healing, or peace.
This is a somewhat better approach to prayer because it is a lot more
humble. Last night as I was
praying for my niece, a strange thing happened in my sanctified imagination.
I had just laid the lovely form of my niece before the throne
to beg God for healing and protection over her when suddenly someone was
walking towards us. It was
Jesus. I saw his sandals as he
knelt beside her to touch her.
In that image, my own heart was altered. I felt like Jesus had reminded me of
his character which is to care deeply for his sorrowful children. (John 11:28-37)
When all you can do is pray for someone, you realize how
desperate and sucky life on this earth really is. If you really listen to the problems of others or open your
eyes to the pain and poverty and depression all around you, it tends to get
more than a little upsetting. It
becomes overwhelming!
“Why aren’t you helping?!” Becomes our indignant cry. Then we fall down on our faces and beg
for Jesus to just come back now because this life is too freaking hard!
Heaven. We want
heaven.
I mean, heaven is “where it’s at!” No more tears, no more sadness. Healthy new bodies? Yes, please! Plus, everything is all golden and jeweled up beyond what we
can even imagine. And, I hear that
God’s house has many rooms. That
sounds good too.
Sign.
Me.
Up.
But the thing about heaven is that it can feel a little
weird if you think about it too long—especially the eternalness of it. Don’t think about that too long. It’ll really freak you out. And if you picture heaven as being all
ethereal and dreamy and bright it gets a little off-putting like something in a
sci-fi movie. We still want all of
our problems to go away, (for real, God), but we don’t want to play the harp on
a cloud for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever….
Fortunately, we will know someone in heaven. (We will likely know lots of people,
but they don’t matter as much as this Someone.)
Jesus.
Jesus, after all, enables us to go to heaven in the first
place. Because of His
frighteningly huge sacrifice, we will no longer be separated from our Creator
or from eternal life and love and peace.
If heaven sounds a little weird, let Jesus be your familiar face.
Of course for this to happen, we have to be familiar with
Jesus. We have to know His
character and be able to recall moments of intimate interaction with Him.
A true, healthy relationship is made up of shared memories,
interactions, communications, as well as knowledge of that person’s character. The Bible tells us everything we need
to know about Jesus. Prayer
enables us to communicate with Him and the Holy Spirit graces us with
interactions.
“The opposite
of fear is not certainty, but vitality of relationship.”
If we have a healthy, growing relationship with Jesus, we do
not have to be afraid to die. (Or be afraid of how weird and long heaven can
seem). Not only do we not have to
be afraid of death, we don’t have to be afraid of life.
Remember, life can be sucky, scary, and hard. And if we only look at the storm, we
will definitely question if God even cares. But, if we keep our eyes on the cross, we will see the
deepest, truest form of love executed on our behalf. The cross says, I suffered even more than you are now. The cross says I experienced pain and
agony and rejection so that the pain and agony you are experiencing now can be temporary.
Temporary.
Remember, Jesus is coming back for us.
He did this incredibly powerful thing to tell us He loves
us, but too often, we act like it’s just not enough. We want Jesus AND a whole slurry of other things.
Jesus AND financial security.
Jesus AND health.
Jesus AND an easy life.
But, as we get to know Jesus, as we take two seconds to look
into His eyes and feel His strength, we slowly begin to realize that all we
need is
He who weeps for us,
He who prays for us,
He who comforts us,
He who
LOVES us unconditionally,
He who is coming back for us.
If your eyes
are on the storm
You'll wonder
if I love you still
But if your
eyes are on the cross
You'll know I
always have and I always will.
--Casting
Crowns
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