“Be patient, therefore, beloved,
until the coming of the Lord.”
— James 5:7a (NRSV)
There is much of life that we
still do not have, and what we hope for is still not a reality; some of this,
or much of this, will be realised on the Day of the Lord. We cannot hasten it.
And we should not loathe the fact that such things will only come at the
appointed time, for that time is not far away.
As much as this is about our
hopes, it’s also about injustice.
The rich and the so-called ‘blessed’
have, somewhat, a free and pleasurable journey through life, by sense of the
opportunity to experience things, majestic.
If we have suffered, just as if we
suffer now, we have the blessed hope; that hope of things to come, come that hour;
come that day.
Remember Who’s Truly Blessed
Going back to the Beatitudes we
find Jesus proclaiming who are the truly blessed: the poor in spirit; those who
mourn; the meek; those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; the pure of
heart; peacemakers; the persecuted—and those who rejoice in their persecution
for the Kingdom.
Those who are truly blessed are
those who know God sufficiently to endure patiently.
This is no easy thing for a human
being, but it’s not hard at all for the true Christ follower. Theirs is surrender
and the pleasure to obey. They are truly blessed because there is no effort
that can add value to this gift of grace they already experience.
Living Like an Agent of the Kingdom
Can we think of ourselves as
agents of the Kingdom?
In this regard we don’t so much
reject the world and its overtures for pleasure or the avoidance of pain, we
make these things irrelevant by planning and thinking and doing all in a
fashion toward God. The more we are consumed by the Lord in the processes of
being, the more we experience levity from those things that will always weigh
us down.
Peace is easy when we let go of
those things we cannot hold, and grasp with confidence of hand that thing we
cannot lose. Materiality has nothing on spirituality. Salvation gives us
everything all the blessings in the world promise but cannot deliver. This is
that blessed hope to be lived.
***
Good things are coming to the
patient; comes the hour, comes a day; the Day of the Lord. Of a sense, we
already have it. We have everything we need this side of eternity but eternity
itself. And that is coming.
© 2013 S. J.
Wickham.
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