Thursday, September 3, 2009

He holds my hand?

I had a discussion last night with some fellow ‘followers of the way’. The talk centered on when God fills you with His Spirit, our life becomes Him living through us. How exciting!Everyone in attendance understood the concept (I think), yet as so often happens, right on the tails of that came the avenue of thought that we should strive to conform to some set of ‘actions’ or that we should discipline ourselves to be found worthy of what He has done. The excitement, energy and life was sucked right out of the conversation.

I came home after that and heard a song saying Jesus ‘hold my hand’. The perspective was of the singer being; childlike, needy, scared and they desired that Jesus would hold their hand providing; security, protection, instruction. Now there have been times in my life where I ‘needed’ Him to do and be just that. There may be times in my future where I find myself in that position again and I don't think I would have a problem seeking that refuge in His power again, but the recurring theme of the night seemed wrong in my moment of reflection.

I remember the day I realized Jesus had let go of my hand. He had brought me along, taught me stuff, picked me up and brushed me off when I fell. He protected me in storms and fought off enemies when I had no wisdom or strength to do so myself. Yet there came a day when He let go of my hand and set me free. He has not left me, he has not abandoned me, He has not changed His love for me but He did change His desires for me.

I don’t think I understood that he let go of me. But I walked, sometimes wobbly, sometimes falling, hurting myself and others. I screwed up at times, and made wrong choices, (I still do) but He wasn’t ‘apart’ from me. He was with me. Eventually I ran, sometimes wildly. Rip roaring through the world crashing into and through life. Sometimes I raced ahead of Him and He raced where I went, right behind me. Other times He would fly off and I’d chase after Him, sometimes scared, sometimes amused, sometimes laughing wildly, and sometimes amazed.
Sometimes we go off side by side. Sometimes we hold hands, like men hold hands when they pray, or like lovers do, or like guys might do to form a chain to keep a crowd back. He still shows me stuff. I show Him stuff too, nothing He’s unaware of, just stuff I like, or wonder about, or consider. He does the same for me.

You see, I think God wants for us the same thing a parent wants for their child. As my wife and I have raised our children, we tried to give them some understanding of the world system. We tried to give them some wisdom, some tools and some strength from which to live their lives.

Do you think another ‘picture’ of Jesus in our lives could be of Him coming to us, changing us, teaching us, strengthening us, in the hope that He would eventually stand us up, and give us a pat on the butt and smile as we wander off to explore the wonderful world he made for us? All this in hope that we would share our discoveries and experiences with Him.
Do you think he likes to see us fly?

2 comments:

  1. most definetely He likes to see us fly! I believe He enjoys independant dependance of Him and His teachings! But one has to be able to be vulnerable enough to endure a few episodes of scraped up knees along the way...that goes with letting go. I think of our grandaughter who simply refuses to learn to stand and walk on her own at this time. It is uncomfortable to her feet and legs, it is unstable and scarry, and it means leaving the security of being held and carried by the mother she trusts and loves. It means falling down, bumping her head, or scraping her knees. But it also means greater freedom of mobility, more to explore, more effective transportation, not to mention the physical benefit of strengthening her bones and muscles to perform better in everything. It is a new identity of herself in a sense...independant of her mother yet dependant on what she has learned from her mother. I also see the vision of learning to ride a bike, first their is training wheels for support, with little risk of tipping over, then there is Dad holding the back of the seat and running beside you as you peddle and shake trying to steady the handlebars as you stear. Then there is the moment at which dad lets go and you realize you are doing it! You are riding a bike..it lasts a few moments, then you get shaky and forget to coordinate all the moments required, and you either fall down, or jump off. Then dad comes running over to pick you up, brush you off, assure you that you are ok..and lets try again. Usually always there is a point in time that one is ready to take action on their own after proper instructions and training and conquers the ride. It is successful because it is based on what one has learned beforehand...either from a teacher , or from life experience. Jesus is the best teacher I know. Some are still riding bikes with training wheels, some with Jesus holding the back of the seat and running beside, some with Him letting go and watching the wobbling handlebars try to maintain a balance, some staying steady and going faster, some falling down. We are all these places at different times of our lives and there He is in all of it. No one thing better then the other really,,, just different. Good blog for thought!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I once read in a Spiritual Leadership book that as you become a more mature Christian, you may actually get less of those moments where Jesus gives you specific direction, or nudges, or whatever, about what to do, what to say, where to go, etc. The reason is that as you draw closer to Him, He makes you more like Him, and so you actually do what He would do.

    He said "Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." Terrifying and amazing at the same time. It is both a command and a promise - we WILL be made perfect. PERIOD. Of course, death is part of the treatment (CS Lewis), but as we go through this life, if we are always like babies (as Paul says it), that wouldn't be honoring to God, right?

    Good post, as always, we need to have humility and compassion to all we meet whether Jesus still has them by the hand, or has them tearing down the street.

    ReplyDelete