Thursday, March 31, 2011

Welcoming the Jesus-Work of Life


“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”


~Ephesians 2:10 (NRSV).


Every conscious moment subsists in works for which we’re to do, those that glorify God somehow.


This is not just about ‘work’... some works are beyond work, unto rest and the salacious revival of our spirits to become better for the Lord than we previously were.


Run back to the opposite extreme for a moment, and we find work is not to be shirked, but embraced. Not work for work’s sake; instead, effort expended in the joy of being able and willing... for many are not either. But we can be.


We Are What God Has Made Us...


There is nothing changing this reality.


It’s what it is, whether we like it or not. At many points it’s introducing us to an acceptance of the status quo, but with an important adjustment — conforming what we are to the truth of God’s Word.


Casting an enquiring eye over the vastness of planet earth helps us know the splendour-of-range in the work that’s to be done (though not all of it by us). There’s still so much — the fields are white with opportunity! (John 4:35)


The Lord of life has made us for the lives we inhabit right now; we’ll be gone in 100 or 50 or 20 years. Now is the time to work. And if we don’t work, we prepare for work.


... Created in Christ Jesus for Good Works...


The resurrection life is the reality of risen glory — mortally identified — created anew for sound reason.


Saved from the hell-of-a-life that wasn’t working, many of us have come before the throne of grace merely to say, “Now that I’m free, how can I assist this work, Lord?”


It’s a humble and grateful deed. We offer ourselves, without cost and with no burden added to anyone.


... Which God Prepared Beforehand to Be Our Way of Life


Our Lord knew our path as it was designed before we were conceived. “How can that be?” we might be led to ask.


Besides the theological answers to that question we can simply know that whatever of numerous paths we could’ve chosen, God had a planned path for us to take once we were reconciled to him. And many permeations does that path have according to our unique need. We won’t outthink God.


Anyway, our first work was to be saved — to embrace “our way of life.”


Our way of life is the thrill to be involved in the holy cacophony of work laid out like the stars. There’s no limit to what we can actively do, gleefully, for God.


© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

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