I'm back in Texas. It's an odd feeling. It's sort of bittersweet. As much as I love Texas and my roommates and my guys, I miss home. I miss family. I miss the lovely girl I left behind. I know that Texas still has a few years left for me. It's not easy being away from the ones you care about. I'm thankful for the family of friends I have down here. They are extremely sustaining to me.
The Cardinals continue to give me hope. While the evil that is the Chicago Cubs have pretty much run away with the Central title, the Redbirds are still in the running for the Wild Card race. If we can catch up to the Brewers (and if the Phillies slump and distance their third place slot from us), we'll have a shot for October. Yes, those are big if's. But that's what September baseball is all about. Time and chance. It's kind of like life.
My heart has been shocked and rocked these past couple of weeks. I've started reading Jeremiah. The first three chapters alone have shook my bones and ripped my heart. It's hard to leave them. The language is extremely gripping and unapologetic. God straight up calls Israel a whore. Not only that but a sex addict of a whore. He describes her as a wild donkey, sniffing the air in her heat, looking for someone to mate. He calls her a wayward bride who bows down like a whore under every green tree, on every hill. She scatters her favors to every foreigner.
As God is laying down His list of truthful charges against His faithless people, He asks them the key question in chapter 2, verse 18. "What do you gain?" He asks them why they chased after the Egyptians and the Assyrians and sought the benefits of their gods. In Ezek. 23:20, He calls Israel a whore who goes after Egypt and Assyria for the size of their genitalia. Such is the weightiness of God’s grief over a people who are faithless. But I see my own reflection in Jeremiah 2. What do I gain when I chase after my own interests? What do I gain when I establish my own happiness or my own satisfaction in anything other than God? Have I not come to realize that it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake my Lord? Then God goes on to describe in 2:20-21 how it was He who liberated them from Egypt. It was He who planted them like a choice vine in the land of Canaan. Israel had lost sight of how great and awesome and terrible and beautiful God is. They forgot that it was Him who liberated them from Egypt with the most colossal displays of splendor and power. They had no long term memory of what He had done for them.They’d simply forgotten. And so, they ran rampant from place to place looking for satisfaction, bowing down like a whore under every green tree.
It’s so easy to shake my head in disbelief. How could anyone leave the greatest good in all existence? But isn’t that true of me? Isn’t it true of all the children of God? This is me. I forget that He liberated me from the bondage of sin. I forget that His grace overran my evil and recalcitrant will. forget that He rescued me from the domain of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Jeremiah 2 is me! My face is hauntingly clear in every word. Every time I let the gravity and blazing wonder of what the Lord did for me at the cross fade, I become vulnerable. My heart is prone to wander and I’m inclined to bow down like a whore to lesser things. I lose all fear of God and sin becomes a much less dangerous thing in my mind. I give Him my back and not my face.
Now, the heartbreaking truth of my faithlessness in Jeremiah 2 is healed when I read chapter 3, from verse 12 onward. Though God could be eternally angry with His faithless people, He’s please to instead be merciful. Oh, thank God! What did God require of His wayward love? 3:13: “Only acknowledge your guilt.” And what guilt was that? Their guilt (and my daily guilt that is covered by the blood of Christ) was rebellion, the scattering their favors among foreigners under every green tree and a failure to obey His beautiful voice. But, if they would only return, the Lord promises to no longer look at them in anger, to heal their faithfulness, to return them to their home (in exiled Israel’s case, Jerusalem), to give them teachers after His own heart and blessings. The only thing more overwhelming than the thought of my own infidelity is the promise of His constant and unconditional fidelity. If He were not faithful to His own word to never leave nor forsake me, I would be hell bound and loving it. Thank You. Thank You for what You bring to mind when I reflect on my own faithlessness. Thank You for capturing my devotion and love as a husband captures the affections of his bride.
The Cardinals continue to give me hope. While the evil that is the Chicago Cubs have pretty much run away with the Central title, the Redbirds are still in the running for the Wild Card race. If we can catch up to the Brewers (and if the Phillies slump and distance their third place slot from us), we'll have a shot for October. Yes, those are big if's. But that's what September baseball is all about. Time and chance. It's kind of like life.
My heart has been shocked and rocked these past couple of weeks. I've started reading Jeremiah. The first three chapters alone have shook my bones and ripped my heart. It's hard to leave them. The language is extremely gripping and unapologetic. God straight up calls Israel a whore. Not only that but a sex addict of a whore. He describes her as a wild donkey, sniffing the air in her heat, looking for someone to mate. He calls her a wayward bride who bows down like a whore under every green tree, on every hill. She scatters her favors to every foreigner.
As God is laying down His list of truthful charges against His faithless people, He asks them the key question in chapter 2, verse 18. "What do you gain?" He asks them why they chased after the Egyptians and the Assyrians and sought the benefits of their gods. In Ezek. 23:20, He calls Israel a whore who goes after Egypt and Assyria for the size of their genitalia. Such is the weightiness of God’s grief over a people who are faithless. But I see my own reflection in Jeremiah 2. What do I gain when I chase after my own interests? What do I gain when I establish my own happiness or my own satisfaction in anything other than God? Have I not come to realize that it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake my Lord? Then God goes on to describe in 2:20-21 how it was He who liberated them from Egypt. It was He who planted them like a choice vine in the land of Canaan. Israel had lost sight of how great and awesome and terrible and beautiful God is. They forgot that it was Him who liberated them from Egypt with the most colossal displays of splendor and power. They had no long term memory of what He had done for them.They’d simply forgotten. And so, they ran rampant from place to place looking for satisfaction, bowing down like a whore under every green tree.
It’s so easy to shake my head in disbelief. How could anyone leave the greatest good in all existence? But isn’t that true of me? Isn’t it true of all the children of God? This is me. I forget that He liberated me from the bondage of sin. I forget that His grace overran my evil and recalcitrant will. forget that He rescued me from the domain of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Jeremiah 2 is me! My face is hauntingly clear in every word. Every time I let the gravity and blazing wonder of what the Lord did for me at the cross fade, I become vulnerable. My heart is prone to wander and I’m inclined to bow down like a whore to lesser things. I lose all fear of God and sin becomes a much less dangerous thing in my mind. I give Him my back and not my face.
Now, the heartbreaking truth of my faithlessness in Jeremiah 2 is healed when I read chapter 3, from verse 12 onward. Though God could be eternally angry with His faithless people, He’s please to instead be merciful. Oh, thank God! What did God require of His wayward love? 3:13: “Only acknowledge your guilt.” And what guilt was that? Their guilt (and my daily guilt that is covered by the blood of Christ) was rebellion, the scattering their favors among foreigners under every green tree and a failure to obey His beautiful voice. But, if they would only return, the Lord promises to no longer look at them in anger, to heal their faithfulness, to return them to their home (in exiled Israel’s case, Jerusalem), to give them teachers after His own heart and blessings. The only thing more overwhelming than the thought of my own infidelity is the promise of His constant and unconditional fidelity. If He were not faithful to His own word to never leave nor forsake me, I would be hell bound and loving it. Thank You. Thank You for what You bring to mind when I reflect on my own faithlessness. Thank You for capturing my devotion and love as a husband captures the affections of his bride.
2 comments:
Italicized 'I's look like backslashes.
I/I/
/ mean, they're almost /dentical!
and we're glad your back J.T.!
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