Blessed
Simple town, humble home, Chasing dreams down gravel roads
Normal life was scraping by, Living broke but we didn’t mind
There’s something ’bout the beauty of simplicity
It’s hard to put a price tag on what gives you peace
The bottom line ain’t always what it seems
And the treasures of your heart can change how you see everything
The most special things in life, they don’t come with a dollar sign
You don’t have to have a fortune to your name, To be rich in different ways…Ryan Stevenson
I know a little of the Gospel; actually a small percentage of the Amazing Grace of God. However, the little you and I know can go a long way to experiencing the Gospel’s Peace and Joy. I’ve written before that The Gospel/Faith is described, not as a picnic, but a war. Believers are always challenged by the ‘spirit of anti-Christ’ which harasses many of us almost each day.
‘Human history is the long story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy’…C.S. Lewis (in Mere Christianity)
I think about my grandmother often. She was a peaceful person. Recently I’ve also remembered a lot of precious times spent with my parents. My parents were content. Today, culturally, it’s hard to find people that can be described as peaceful or content. They didn’t have nearly as much materially as we do, but they had a confidence that God was in their lives.
If you only looked at what they had, you could assume those previous generations should have been, not content, but a sadder generation. That would not be true. The ‘mustard seed faith’, their small confidence in God, gave them a quiet place in many hardships and challenges. I don’t remember either my grandmother or my parents being anywhere near the mindset that we see in the world today: the fear, pain, anger, depression, or unhappiness.
Amazingly, with all the so-called ‘cultural progress’ we’ve made today do you see the average person as content as the previous generation? Or, more likely, is life coming up short of what’s supposed to make us ‘happy’?
Today, the world system will tell you that you have it so much better than yesterday’s folk. You should think that simply because we’re so much more physically and mentally advanced. Culturally, are we as peaceful as the previous generation? Is it true that material things and power trips have satisfied as advertised? As we advance into tomorrow, does the future look peaceful to you? Does the ‘progress we’ve made’ look like real progress or just more of the ancient?
As suggested in Ryan’s lyrics, it seems that much of what made my grandparents and parents peaceful were because ‘the treasures of your heart can change how you see everything’. It’s great to be financially rich, but ‘the special things in life don’t come with dollar signs’.
I think we’re overlooking those truths, those ‘treasures’, in the schools and in the politic. I know rich and poor families in which people are ‘happy’; I know both rich and poor people that are very sad. Amazingly, some burdened people can be just as ‘happy’ as people with no burden. What I’m suggesting is that the common denominator with all people is the condition of the heart.
Paul taught having little or having much, in either be the same. ‘Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.’ (Php 4:11) Is that really possible? That Greek word used for content there is only used one time in the N. T. Its most closely associated with ‘total peace’, a confidence that sufficiency is established with your heart.
I heard it expressed God holds us in times of suffering and laughs with us in times of joy. Bottom line for me: in the old and new testament God is simply: I Am (and I Am is enough)
We don’t have to give up our emotions, our fun, our careers, and our dreams; however we subject them to live by God’s Wisdom. As believers we’re to trust that if we accept and believe we will ‘never thirst again’. Is that possible? With the Wisdom of God: Yes.
We are to trust: in giving, we will then receive. Is that possible? What Jesus promised 2000 years ago, does it still work today? Absolutely. May not be easy to grasp every minute or each day, perhaps not even every year, but it’s Jesus’ Truth just the same. Our emotions should not be used to measure that, the Words of Jesus should.
This Gospel is a Life (Gospel) vs. life (biology) thing. Life is manifested in the summary of our lives. The Gospel is a Kingdom versus kingdom thing. The chaos predicted in Genesis is a reality in this life but it can be overcome, be redeemed in this life, by His Life.
The closest I can express it: do the Gospel, and then watch the Gospel. Some of the Life will appear immediately and some later. Witness Jesus’ life: he was surrounded by ‘protesters’, called an illegitimate child, declared to be possessed, he was betrayed by Judas, humiliated by the Roman and Jewish leaders, physically scarred and beaten. Peter denied him, was pierced, and hung on a cross. But the totality, the summary, of His life was- ‘Savior of the world’. The totality of your Life ‘doing the Gospel’ will add up to peace and contentment; the ingredients of which are made up of Faith, Hope and Joy.
Writing these letters have been the most disciplining thing I had to do every month over the past 36 years. They’ve forced me to look at our lives through the prism of the Gospel every month. A prism filtered by God’s Word, a Truth that is different than what I’m physically seeing in the world.
Is Jesus’ Wisdom better than today’s professors, politicians, scientists, psychologists, even better than the opinions of our Hollywood artists? Is it more likely that Jesus’ teachings will make you more grateful, peaceful, truthful, and experience a better life than any other ‘wise men’s’ teachings? Is he really the Way, the Truth, the Life? Are His ‘commandments’ slightly better or overwhelmingly better? Are His ways greater than our ways?
The Bible is God shared to us. Jesus is God revealed to us. Both are manuals to Life as the Father would have it for us. We are to trust: ‘Taste and see that Jehovah (Lord) is Good: Blessed is the man that takes refuge in Him’. (Psalm: 34-8)
It’s funny, when I started writing this letter I wrote the last paragraph first, intending to go back to the top and work my way to that ending. That last paragraph never made it in this letter. While writing, I just ‘did the Gospel’, followed my heart and the letter changed.
We recently broadcast a 2 hour audio book about Keith Green’s life. I remember pausing while deciding to do that broadcast. I asked myself: should we stop the music for 2 hours to air that audio book? I decided to ‘do the Gospel’. It does the work.
I didn’t know if someone would hear a paragraph or even one sentence of Keith’s story and it change their life. I know that from experience that can happen. I was reading God In The Dock, a book by C.S. Lewis forty years ago: One paragraph changed every day for the rest of my life. Ours is to do the Gospel, His is to deliver the Wisdom.