I believe in the age to come.
It’s like that when you lose someone you love. You want to believe that they are not gone, they are just invisible, and that they are still here somehow. My dad says that my mom always wanted to get a balcony view so that she could watch all of us in this still unfolding masterpiece after she dies. I want to see my mom again.
It’s also like that when stuff gets broken, when you’re misunderstood, and when relationships go south. I want a whole nother age for all these things to be restored, not just a “we’ll agree to disagree” or a “don’t worry about it” or an “oh well” or an “I’m sure this will all work out” or an “I forgive you”. I want an age of truth and love. I want the salt to get its saltiness back. I want the light to shine like before. I want to be like I was made before all my wounds and tears and breaks and sins wasted me. I want the people I love to be the gods and goddesses I’ve seen glimpses of. I want all the encrusted layers of pollution to be cracked and burned off and all the poison drained out.
This is what it means to be held, sings Natalie Grant. I am in the firm grip of heaven. It simply must be there. Or else how can I go on? This is not my home. This is not where I was supposed to live or how I was supposed to live. I was not made to settle for these choices. I was made to swim in beauty and love and harmony. These evil days are just me making the best of the hands I'm dealt.
This is what it means to be held
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we’d be held
I believe in the age to come. The return of the king will bring a new age. I believe more now than ever. Jesus talked about it. He just kind of threw it out there like it was a given. He never tried to persuade anyone about the reality of it. Instead He loved people and put them back together, and that was persuasive enough. And then he came back from the dead. To me that’s good enough reason to believe that heaven is real and that there is an age to come. And it’s a clear enough message that we can live like it today. Heaven is invading Earth, and the King of Heaven has sent some of His people in to be the opening band. It’s like we don’t have to wait until He gets here to start living like we belong in the new age rather than the present one. Even if things don't go like we know they should. Even if everything fell.
I will believe in the age to come. It’s the only way.
4 comments:
Hey, I was just wondering if the life Jesus led was a metaphor for His "return" in this age.
Consider:
He didn't come in a manner that people expected. What do average believers believe today? That His "return" will be a literal appearing, a kind of 'rapture', a visible Kingly incredible miraculous return.
Predictable.
He didn't come in a form that anyone expected. He was born poor, with no station in life, nothing to brag about, nothing to maintain. He was lowly, not attractive, and humble in every way.
He didn't go around doing what anyone thought He'd be doing. He did a few miracles here and there, enough to leave a mark, but He certainly didn't establish His throne there in Jerusalem. He was killed.
He didn't accomplish what anyone thought He would accomplish. He failed. He was despised by anybody who was anybody. They killed Him.
He wasn't appreciated by anybody who mattered. He was worshiped by children, by the despised, the leprous, the rejected. He was the King of the forgotten.
So, what makes us think His next 'return' will look anything like what we expect this time?
He's never been predictable in the past. Why would He start now?
Why wouldn't He choose a very subtle way of 'coming' now? A kind of 'coming' that requires running away from our beliefs, our knowledge, and our expectations.
A kind of coming that surprises and delights us, that catches us off guard.
That's invisible, not visible.
That's subtle, not obvious.
That's inviting, not commanding.
A kingdom that many are a part of and they don't even know it.
Where the wise are confounded.
Where the simple are blessed.
What a curious age that would be.
But you forgot one very important thing. We now have the perfect, authoritative, 100% infallible Word of God, so perfect that it needs no interpretation, so infallible that even if you don't perceive its truth or feel its truth, you have to accept it as written and obey it anyway, so authoritative that even God Himself couldn't act other than what is written even if He wanted to.
And you're forgetting one thing about those who were in power during the first coming of Christ. They were imperfect. Had we been in charge, a second pass wouldn't even have been necessary.
The second coming is absolutely predictable because we have absolute written truth and are absolutely perfect in our ability to read it for ourselves. Subjectivity has been completely shown to be false and are of the devil, who was already defeated at Calvary.
And we can build this dream together
Standing strong forever
Nothing's gonna stop us now!
Objective truth. Objective faith. Objective reality. The Christian life is based on perfect knowledge. God can do nothing other than what he has written in Our Perfect Book. We've got him right where we want him this time.
We need to talk my friend. Save me.
Mind:
Objectivity. Calculation. Belief. Certainty. Knowledge. Decision. Validity. Conviction. Doctrine. Accuracy. Information. Narrative. Explanation. Organization. Complexity. Predictability. Categorization. Visible. Measurable.
Spirit:
Subjectivity. Irrationality. Venture. Risk. Wonder. Identity. Counter-intuition. Invisible. Story. Simplicity. Unity. Truth. Mystery.
Plain as the nose on my face.
I almost forgot--
Mind: Uniformity. Scalability.
Spirit: Variation. Sustainability.
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