THRIVE
What would be left of you if your faith was subtracted? What parts of your emotions, relationships, ethics would remain? Would your physical life change? Your finances? Granted that we are body, soul, and spirit, does that mean two-thirds would remain if that one, troublesome part, the politically incorrect faith, was amputated?
That math would perhaps make it easier to inwardly justify the compromise. I am all too familiar with this. But it is not some abstract faith I silence, it is the Creator of the universe. It is not a little personal conviction, it is the loving Truth who gave everything to penetrate our proud notions of knowledge. He is the source of the very empathy that motivates me to set Him aside in order to please people. As if I could birth His life on my terms. As if I had life of my own to give.
No. In my experience, there is nowhere near two-thirds of me left when I exclude Him. A grey, dead coral reef strangled by plastic packets of artificial vitamins comes much closer. Like those wrappers, I become void of the fruit depicted on the outside, “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2. Timothy 3:5) Like the reef, I lose color, life, purpose. If nothing changed, I soon would have nothing to offer.
Compared to the rescue efforts for coral reefs, restoration for depleted and polluted souls, is simpler, yet similar. “Using innovative techniques, like underwater coral farming and reattaching broken coral pieces,….the goal is to restore the coral reef to allow the natural inhabitants a chance to thrive…. Scientists have found that the corals grown in the nurseries are able to reproduce in their new homes.” (http://oceantoday.noaa.gov/coralrestoration/)
God’s innovative technique is simply for us to return to Him, the very Source of life, and allowing the Living Water of His Word to revive our detached faith.
“And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘ Live! ’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘ Live! ’ I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful…” (Ezekiel 16:6-7a)
“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “ I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:3-5)
With power and insight beyond the most sophisticated scientists’, He invites us into the only habitat where we can thrive and be fruitful: in Him.
“For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.”
(Psalms 36:9)
“O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, harmony.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sorrow, joy.
Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not
so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are
born to Eternal Life.”
