Never underestimate the power of a few words, a smile, a timely hug

Desperate texts, despairing phone calls, anguish written all over a person’s face.  I’ve seen it all.  I’ve received many over the years, and I’ve also instigated concern at times in those who care for me.

One thing that doesn’t surprise me is the power of a small thing underwritten in empathy.

Any of us may discount what we can do in alleviating someone’s pain.  But when we’re on the other side, plunged deep into the abyss, we know just how important and profound a simple, kind gesture is.

Sometimes it’s a word, and it can literally be one word, usually with a tone denoting the sincerest care.  Actually, I know from experience, it’s almost the least amount said that has the most supportive impact.  It’s an opportunity to be present in the listening, and the more we resist saying anything, the more someone will FEEL cared for.

There’s almost nothing a smile cannot accomplish in a tense situation.

I recall being at a state league basketball game and pacifying a heated exchange between one of our fans and one of the other team’s officials.  All I did was get between them, smile, and affirm them both!  That’s it.  Within seconds I could feel both responding to the calm I endeavoured to bring.

Smiles work in shopping centres, in queues, on the road, and elsewhere, so long as our heart is smiling. And that’s the secret.  It’s kindness that offers a smile when everyone’s frowning.  A smiler knows they can bring peace even in angry and violent situations provided they’re prayerfully kind.

If you notice the snippets of text messages and emails in the image, you’ll see that these are all normal, albeit there is desperation in some of them.  These are all parts of messages that I possess.  I didn’t even have to look far.

If you think about the sorts of messages you receive or send, you may agree.  Desperation is part of our human condition.  We have the opportunity to harmonise the threatening moods of desperation to make a place of safety both for ourselves and the others we care about.

Hugging is something that is also underrated—at least for those who feel safe being hugged, and for those who feel comfortable giving hugs.  Long lingering hugs punctuated with purity are completely non-sexual and affirm our deepest needs for acceptance and belonging.

Can you imagine how powerful an interaction of listening and appropriate (for the person being cared for) physical presence is?  So simple and profound.  The less we do, the more impact we have, if we truly care.  Somehow God does all the work.

There are people we know—not least ourselves at times—every single day who could do with an encouraging word, a listening ear, a smile, a hug.

The more we pray for opportunities to do these things, the more we’ll notice situations needing our help, and the more God will have people pick us out.  It is an enormous privilege to be trusted enough to help.

I can tell you now, I’ve faced such desperate situations emotionally and spiritually that God has shown me how common and how brutal desperate situations are.  Help is desperately needed.

How are you feeling being you today?

Hello. If it would be okay to ask, how have you been today? Or, how do you think your day might go? Have you connected with yourself and given yourself the chance to breathe, to be silent, and to be at peace with your circumstances and who you are?

Sorry for all those questions. I think though that we all have an opportunity, each and every day, to come into the presence of the most special person alive as far as we ourselves are personally concerned. We can only serve and be of help to others, properly and adequately and sufficiently and safely, when we have sought that most intimate connection, a communion, with us, ourselves.

How are you feeling in your relationships? You might be preoccupied by one relationship. You may be sad because you’re not being respected. Or that might make you mad. Or both, which is commonly felt.

Perhaps it’s a particular person or kind of relationship that you’re burdened by. 

Or, it could be you’re overjoyed by something that’s happening. You may not even be able to contain yourself.

Maybe there’s something that’s a growing concern for you. Something gradually gnawing away at you.

You could be perchance unsure what to make of a circumstance or offer or opportunity.

Change may be being foisted upon you. Perhaps it’s loss. You may feel so out of control. It’s horrid.

You may be feeling weak, or fearful, sad or mad, or a combination of all these feelings, maybe to the point where you’re confused and overwhelmed with just how to feel.

That’s okay. To sit there in silence, or to lay or stand, not knowing what to do or how to do it, even though it seems totally confounding, is worthy of a smile, or a “Yes! It does hurt.”

To know that our emotional realities at times are beyond all reason, unfathomable, that they enter the realm of mystery, to sit there and accept it, is the grandest maturity.

I mean, who does that? Who can? You can.

How many people can do that—just attempt to feel glad in an inexplicable pain—not mad or sad—even if in our gladness we’re saying, “Come and sit with me, madness and sadness, for you have a right to be here, welcome just as much as gladness is.”

This is being real about how we feel. It may seem that we’re being courageous, but it’s simpler than that. Honesty is the profoundest simplicity, and it is always the most intimate of experiences, worth ever fragment of miniscule pain we might feel in the second we face it.

How are you feeling today? You know that this question is important. If we cannot start our day, or end it, or ask ourselves at any time—asking this kind of question—who do we really give ourselves permission to be?

If we didn’t allow ourselves that freedom, we would make our own choice to be less free than what we could be.

You know how important you are. As important and as valuable as anyone who’s ever lived or will live, just as everybody else is.

Be you today and enjoy the fact that only you can be you, and nobody else can be.

Say, “Be free to be truly me... today... all my days.”

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

The thoughtful peacemaker

The media coverage on the recent bushfires that swept through many parts of eastern Australia highlights the challenges for us in this social media age.  The Prime Minster being lambasted on the one hand, and all manner of heroes heralded on the other.

I recall being caught up more than once reading the hashtag haranguing.  Each time I noticed my emotional response rise.  I started to experience grief, sorrow, shock, anger and disappointment—sometimes all at once.

Then, because I’ve been focusing in Hebrews, I felt God nudge me to this:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”
— Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

I hadn’t even finished the first verse, and I saw what God wanted me to see.  Suddenly, I saw what is eternally relevant—all those witnesses in Hebrews 11.  After I meditated on this verse, I dove into the commentaries; the “witnesses” are urging us on, just as fans urge athletes they go to see!

These champions of faith who have run their race urge us on to run well and finish ours in faith.

Throw off everything that hinders

Then the word “since” struck me.  It then occurred to me that the writer to the Hebrews is giving a massive hint on how we are to live by faith.  Because we have so much heavenly support, and because we know what we need to do to be right with God (i.e. live by faith), the writer is imploring us to do what we need to do as a result: “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”

In the context of all manner of issues that sadden us or get us irate, rightly or wrongly, this verse reminded me there was something more important.  “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone,” as the apostle Paul says in Romans 12:18 (NIV)

Getting to the heart of all issues

Again, I had to acknowledge that while my emotional responses may often be right, if there’s anything peacemaking principles teach me, it’s that my heart covets many desires. Not all these honour God. Even the ones that do honour God are often tainted in my demanding my desires be met the way I want them met.

Social media and current affairs often reveal our hearts.  We also have our biases to contend with. And yet here is my favourite Bible prayer of Psalm 139:23-24 (NIV): 

“Search me, God, and know my heart;    test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Every time I read this prayer, I’m reminded of how quickly my desires become demands.  It reminds me how quickly I judge people and situations when I’m in that mindset.  The redemptive pathway reminds me to be honest about the things I desire.  What I cannot necessarily have, what I cannot control, even if I would demand it, I must genuinely grieve.

The inside job in peacemaking

We can all assume that peacemaking is interpersonal.  But I’ve found even more so it’s intrapersonal as we relate with God in truth.  God works within us so we can be thoughtful peacemakers.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

The fruit of the Gentleness, a blessing to one and all

My wife has often counselled me in the act of speaking to our son; “Lower your voice,” and it works a treat. She noticed me interacting with older children at the school I work at; “Your voice is softer, lower, slower... calmer... and they listen!”

Then we recall an Australian children’s show called, “Bluey,” where the youngest character is overwhelmed by her father’s enthusiastically rough play—Bingo the pup learns to yelp when she’s had enough. I’m coaching my son to tell me when I’m being too loud. But truly, he needs me to regulate my own volume.

You see, I’ve had people behave loud and angrily with me, and it seldom works. Boisterousness never works on sensitive souls, unless they’re in playful moods, and let’s face it, none of us are playful all the time.

I’ve very often not only been put off by brute force, it’s often left me feeling intimidated—that is I’m left timid in response, and nobody gets anything out of a person who is relegated to timidity.

I’m not ashamed of being able to be intimidated. It’s cause and effect. Just because we’re intimidated doesn’t mean we’re weak. It means the person who intimidated us missed the mark.

~

Gentleness is a sacred gift that proves its truth comes from love.

Being gentle in all we say and do comes from a quiet centre.

If only we can be gentle with ourselves, not judging ourselves, resisting our own condemnation, quashing the temptation to feel guilty for any number of things, then we can be gentler for others.

If we can be gentler with ourselves, we can be gentler with others so that they, too, could be gentler with themselves.

There is more to gentleness than we realise. To be genuinely gentle, we truly need to be empathetic, which is to be understanding, and not only of others, but more truly and more centrally understanding of ourselves.

If we have no empathy for ourselves, or in other words if we do not understand and accept ourselves, how on earth can we have empathy for other people in order to endeavour to understand and therefore accept them?

Whether we like it or not, we need to feel safe in our own skin first, and that’s nothing about selfishness—it’s about safety.

I don’t know about you, but my belief is I cannot fully understand and accept myself apart from Christ. I’ve tried many other ways prior to coming to Christian faith. None of them worked. The only thing in my experience that works is a message that doesn’t rely on my goodness, but that which rests on God’s grace alone.

Having found the secret then to being understood and finding ourselves acceptable i.e. in Christ, we come to be at peace with ourselves, and, having sensed the power for love in that, we therefore then want others to experience that same peace which is power for love.

We may ask ourselves, if God understands us and accepts us, who are we not to?

This is the most penetrating question. Anyone who lingers on such a question should assuredly come to find that if God never condemns us, who are we if we do?

Let me finish where I started.

Gentleness is ever the gift to every single living thing. To be gentle is also a gift to us, as direct benefactors of the gifts of self-control, patience and peace.

A prayer as simple as breathing for a blessed life

Let me suggest a rhythm of life
that will work for one and all,
because by the reality of circumstance
this life is one of call.

This life, if you haven’t already discovered it, is about motive, purpose, a reason for being. If we don’t have that, we really don’t have anything. But the central motive, purpose or reason for being is not about doing, it’s about BEING.

Here is a new way of living that has helped me, and I’m sure it may help you.

I call it a life of praying by the metaphor of breathing...

... inhaling is our relationship with God, and
exhaling is our relationship with others.

You might ask, “Where does my relationship with myself fit in?” We, in our inhaling and exhaling, are present throughout the process—it is OUR life, to enjoy the fruit of good clean air from the living Lord as we inhale, so others can enjoy good fruit from us as we exhale what was purified air.

Let me explain this by example.

This is a rhythm of prayer as simple as breathing in and out.

INHALING PRAYER

I open my Bible and so often this happens. Almost immediately the words begin to speak into my spirit. Most people who have a relationship with God will resonate with what I’m saying. Somehow, even as I open the pages, with my relationship with God, the words as I read become a balm that God uses to restore my soul.

This is but one example of breathing in, because in opening the pages of the Bible, I find it is like inhaling the very air that I need to breathe, rather than opting for any number of toxic sources of literature, image, sound or vision, or stimuli, that I could otherwise imbibe.

Breathing in or inhaling is very much
the careful process of stewarding one’s heart.

I think many of us know just how tenuous this life is, especially in social media circles. It can feel so hard to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, because at every turn it seems, there are attractive morsels we begin to munch on, that inevitably and later on we find were actually bad for us. If we didn’t realise this in time, this imbibing of fast spiritual food had a devastating impact on our soul. It clogged up our system, and we regretted having ingested it.

Inhaling the right things, the things of God, is essential for the spiritual life that has its purpose in being blessed by God to be a blessing.

We cannot be a blessing FOR God if we
haven’t already been blessed BY God.

EXHALING PRAYER

Having inhaled what we know for sure and certain in our spirits is from God, we therefore know with full confidence we will bear good fruit as we exhale in the prayer that pertains to our relationships.

Just as much as we all deserve the joy and the blessing of relating well with our fellow human beings, God gives us this capacity to make our contribution, relationally with others, simply by the way we have sown into our own relationship with God.

Having inhaled and having been fed on good food, we are now more than well situated, poised and satisfied, to sow well into our relationships, because God has sown well into us.

This process of sowing well into our relationships—living at peace with all as far as it depends on us—is what we can call exhalation by prayer.

~

As simple as life can be, and for so many of us life is just not simple, a prayer as simple as breathing, or by living the metaphor of breathing for prayer, we have a simple way forward.

A simple way forward has this blessing about it: every hope and every purpose is achievable.

Photo by Jace & Afsoon on Unsplash

The crisis of identity hidden in anxiety and depression

Having suffered anxiety and depression enough to know, I was astounded to face a new reality in my most recent bout of the blues. At the end of the year, tired in the mind and harried in different directions, I wrestled with my reality, and began to tussle for a way back.

It felt like my spirit had lost its peace; my soul had lost touch with its silence.

I couldn’t understand how or why I had descended so quickly—from functioning and feeling well to being caught up in a whirlwind of exhaustion, in a matter of days it seemed, much to the point where I felt I couldn’t even help myself.

Ah, at least I knew who could! But finding my way back to God, from that disconnected vantage point, felt next to impossible. And that was the clue I needed to face.

As I took myself offline and began to allow myself to rest, I soon also took myself off to retreat. Back to nature. As I allowed the plethora of information and concerns to float away into the ether, something I’d lost touch with somehow returned.

It was in the silence and solitude, through my reading, and through the Spirit’s massaging of my soul, that my mind sprang alive ever so gradually, and what I call “the stream of eternal truths” started flowing into and through my psyche again!

But there is something I can saw as I meandered from the cognitive freeze to the thawing:

I discovered that, sometimes when I’m not myself,
I feel like I’ve never been myself.

Let me say it a different way. When we’re anxious or depressed (or both!), just by example, we may feel like we’ve never been anything or anyone—like we feel like nothing. That is to say, we know we’ve had times of mental health and vitality, but it seems that those experiences are not only irredeemable, but impossible now to access, and not just that, but we may be shut out of all knowledge of these positive experiences of being. As if they never existed in the first place, though somehow, somewhere deeper within, we do know.

It’s as if these positive realities never were.

That—as a thought—
is a lonely, scary concept!

This is a scary place to be in, especially when we consider that most of the time, we’re completely unaware this is occurring. Times like these, we’re in a state of being that is locked out of the very rooms that would be key to our escape back into normality. And we may not even be aware!

Yes, my reality has sometimes been that the flow of the stream of eternal truths has not only stopped flowing, it’s as if it never was.

Therein lies the genesis of a crisis of faith, because though we know God, it’s more like we KNEW God, or worse, NEVER knew God, because our present has lost touch with our past.

I’ve had this occur to me several times, and sometimes it’s occurred for weeks (but never to date for more than several months).

You know something’s wrong, but you have no idea what it is or how to get back.

For those helping those with mental illness, it pays to be aware of this dynamic. To understand that it’s not only possible but probably likely that a spiritual assault has occurred—and NOT centrally because the person’s been disobedient. Often these things occur because we’ve been TOO obedient. In that, we’ve been too available to others in terms of our time and/or lack of boundaries.

Spiritual helpers bring calm and gentle encouragement, not challenge, well at least not straight away. Or, perhaps the best challenge is one that redirects a person’s focus onto what will be an encouragement—like encouraging them to slow down.

Empathy is most crucially needed. And many times, it’s empathy for two that the helper brings, because people battling anxiety and depression often can’t access empathy for themselves for the self-loathing they’re bombarded with. And that’s no poor reflection on them! It’s just what is. Anyone can find themselves in the depressive mindset, because once we’ve been there we see how humanly available such a mindset is.

What do we do when we find ourselves in these dire straits?

We must give ourselves time. We must enter a process of change. Environments of silence and simplicity and few stimuli are needed. We start to observe what we’re telling ourselves. We reject all self-talk of rejection. We redirect doubts of worth in the direction of thoughts of praise. In many ways, these are elements of trust that we put in place by faith. We open ourselves up to the Spirit’s inquiry. We expose our spirit. We do all this in the trust that God will restore our soul. And we remind ourselves that we ARE. Just as much valued of God as anyone ever was!

Connection with our identity is crucial for mental health.

The depths of honesty for relationship and recovery

There are two forms of honesty right off the bat. Honesty that says in so many ways, “Honestly...!” but fails to live up to what it said, and honesty that is founded in deeds backed up in actions of integrity.

The first form is somewhat our natural inclination. Many of us are quick to reflect lightly or promise things we can’t or won’t ultimately deliver. “Hey, I honestly thought I would/could have done that!” (when we didn’t or couldn’t). This honesty is in fact something more akin to actual dishonesty, however well-meaning we were when we said lovely things that didn’t ultimately materialise. Full of good wishes and intent, this kind of honesty isn’t helpful for our relationships or indeed ourselves, and it so often produces harm. This is the honesty that sows havoc.

The second form of honesty is the true and real and much rarer honesty. It takes hard work and much discipline to access this honesty. This is the kind of honesty that remains committed to its promises, following through to their fulfilment, however uncomfortable or costly it feels, even when it hurts (see Psalm 15:4b).

This second form of honesty is not only the absolute bedrock for relationship, authenticity, integrity and sincerity, it is the secret of success in achieving anything good and worthwhile. When I think of this type of honesty, I’m most reminded of a guiding principle of Alcoholics Anonymous. Recovery is impossible without deep honesty. That’s just “how it works,” as AA would say. The most important thing we can do when we’re in recovery from anything is to be brutally honest with ourselves, take our own responsibility, and resist blaming others and making excuses.

We are all tempted to practice the first kind of honesty; it is full of intent, it is full of smooth and well-meant words, but most often with very little action attached to it. This kind of honesty—what many call honesty, but which isn’t—tends to denigrate relationships, damage trust, and ultimately defames the individual who cannot or will not face their truth or others’ truths.

We see this duplicitous version of honesty in every unrecovered addict, narcissist, and delinquent. This is the root cause of the thinking that produces addiction in the first place. To hear them talk we would think they are the embodiment of integrity. Nothing would be further from the truth. Lies merge with the practice of malevolent deeds which form into habits that become addictions. Relationships are devoid of hope when one or both cannot be honest with themselves, let alone the other person. Lying is but a falling off the slippery slope away from love.

Deep honesty is the primal form of humility. This is where honesty is grounded in the commitment to change behaviour. Less words, more action, because actions always speak louder than words. 

Deep honesty transcends words and becomes power for action-oriented transformation.

The reason I’ve contrasted these “forms of honesty” (one of which is clearly dishonesty) is dishonesty is so often passed off as honesty.

Running the race of peace and perseverance all the way to glory

“Therefore, since we are surrounded
by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders
and the sin that so easily entangles,
and let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us...”

As we are surrounded by this great cloud of eternal witnesses—a great crowd urging us on to finish our race, as theirs is finished—and as we’re rooted on with such a cavalcade of extra-terrestrial power and heavenly glory—let us run with enduring passion!

But we cannot run efficiently at all with weight of baggage hanging from us. In throwing off all that hinders—all distraction and turmoil—becoming disentangled, we run not so much faster, as this race of the Kingdom’s glory isn’t about earthly pace, but Godspeed.

I run, then, the only race I can run: my own.
It may seem hard, but it is all that’s
required of me. Only I can do that.

Godspeed then is about a perseverance beyond the weight and trappings of sin, which only serves to debilitate. It is our task to identify with military precision, a strategy we can and do execute in terms of spiritual self-control for ourselves, plus a mode of operating with others that glorifies God’s witness in us, as if that great crowd in spurring us on, “speaks” confidence in us to witness as indeed they witnessed by their faith.

We are to run in their lane, and by their love, in the manner to which they ran.

We can only run this race well—by faith—when we run as they ran. By faith alone, in the running of our race with endurance, we are made right and do persevere alone by faith.

There is a holy enigma in this, for we can only live righteously when we actually live by faith—which is the exercise of running whilst throwing off every unnecessary distraction, ridding ourselves of every entangling sin that prevents progress in the race.

Through a sound, disciplined mind, through a trusting and committed heart, we make incisive adjustments to our gait—even as we run, and yes, even midstride.

In terms of metaphor then, what we’re doing is learning that this race is for the stillness of soul that is fully reliant on God; a race marked out and called a race because of finiteness; the limitations of time.

The race marked out for us is so magnificently true—i.e. the running track or “the course” has so few blemishes in it—that it is to be discerned by us, in order to give us great joy—that our capacity for faith, built for righteousness’ sake, is only limited by our ability or inability to throw off all that would hinder us.

These are the sadnesses that lead us not to God, but away from divine presence in bitterness and contempt, the unresolved tension we refuse to let go of, and the toxic relationships we remain in.

These are the habits of comfort that add unnecessary weight and inordinate glory to us as we stride out each and every day in denial or anger.

We will know them by our exhaustion. Then, if in running in such a way as to become burned out, we know we are running wrong.

And without changing the unchangeable circumstances of our lives, we subtract our mindset from the paradigm of God that we add—as we take in the heavenly significance of living our lives by faith in the now. What am I saying?

By simply refusing to insist things need to be different, we see that we are planted where we are, because its OUR race we are running, and not someone else’s.

We take our race joyfully on the whole. But then we also hear God calling us to change with courage any aspect that ought to be changed that we can, even while we also accept everything that cannot be changed.

There is a peace that surpasses understanding when we get these dynamics right.

Being the kindness that you wish to see in the world

“A hero is unsung until the moment they win applause,
but the truest, bravest heroes hardly ever win applause.”

Heroism is a fickle idea! Some people become heroes because they chose to do the right thing at the right time and were noticed. Sometimes these people spend the rest of their lives trying to live up to a standard that a whole community insist they live up to. Occasionally, such a hero goes from the initial popularity to achieve something truly great.

Heroism is fickle also to the opposite degree: sometimes people are targeted as rogues unfairly, simply because one poor moment painted them into the corner of outrage.

But I guess most of the time, by characterisation, heroes are heroes and villains are villains.

But what is the make-up of the true hero?

I think the true hero is someone who is kind enough to see heroes everywhere in the common life. These are the parents of children with disabilities, a father or mother who sacrifices what they could have to bring up their children correctly, and any person who perseveres against the odds. It’s the student who studies fulltime, balancing the demands of supporting themselves for years before they graduate. It’s those who endure financial hardship yet don’t give up. It’s the person or family living in a foreign land far from loved ones. It’s anyone who’s ever loved much and lost. Yes, it’s the person who’s lost it all and who has steadily rebuilt their lives in persevering faith. It’s the one who has carried others’ burdens. That’s heroism.

Heroes are everywhere and anywhere where people go above and beyond in doing the right thing.

I wonder if the essence of being kind is merely noticing the heroism in the common, ordinary life, and simply calling encouraging attention to it. This would have the function of putting courage into those who might otherwise be tempted to give up; those dozens of individual people and families in our orbit who may not see the heroism that is on display in them simply living their lives as they do.

Imagine being a person who notices impressive and inspiring things. The person who is close to God has the privilege of observing the goodness in life. They may not be harried to such a point where they have no scope for seeing. They insist upon disciplines that keep them present to the things going on around them.

Their gift to the world may simply be to notice the wonderfully ordinary yet persevering traits of many heroes who never win applause.

These may never see how God uses them with perfect timelines in a mere yet poignant word of encouragement or act of random kindness. They may not see how the execution of such kindness as its very own heroism. The best of heroes never make these connections, for they are too interested in others, and of giving to others what God intends others to have.

They’ve learned that the more you give away,
the more blessing you receive spiritually from God.

I wonder if kindness is the truest heroism. Such a commitment to live for others, to encourage others without thought of gain, is the most benevolent of purposes.

The kinder a person is, the more they may resist being highlighted as a hero. They will wish not to be noticed at all, and yet these are the most deserving of the tag of heroism.

Another thing a kind person may never see is the hope, joy and peace they embody. Their very presence in our lives is a gift. Think of them and thank them today.

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

All of Heaven’s Host is ceaselessly cheering you on

“Therefore, since we are surrounded
by such a great cloud of witnesses...”

Even in the first sentence of Hebrews 12, we gain a sense of the enormity of the support we have. Think of the host of heaven’s residents who have completed their race, urging us on toward our respective finish lines.

In terms of spiritual attack within the spiritual warfare we’ve been placed in, we customarily still give Satan far too much credit for the impact that can be made against the Kingdom of Light.

Instead, we, who are of God’s Kingdom already, have the cogent support of the heavenly throng, not even of a limited number of angelic beings—the whole realm.

As we run our race of endurance, as the heroes of Hebrews 11 ran theirs, as Jesus ran his, we are being rooted on by the “witnesses” who believe in us as approved of God in Christ, as they were.

The heavenly throng gather about us, around us, surrounding us in a purposeful display of praise in the heavenly realms, noting as they cannot help noting, we are alive and running our race, to the finish! It’s us in the arena! These magnificent spectators, who were commended by God millennia ago, are our fans!

Imagine the holy delight in these heavenlies as they sit there spectating in holy accord, always for us, never against, cheering us on when we succeed in the faith, imploring us to continue when we struggle with doubt amid hardship; always interceding for us that we might do our best, while we can. Once our lives are over, all bets are off, all action is done, and no more opportunities are afforded us.

Much ado is made about spiritual warfare and I, for one, would never call anyone to underestimate the cunning and seduction of the enemy. But the enemy has been overcome most magnificently by our Saviour!

Perhaps we struggle more by fear as far as who we’re up against, rather than see in full view the “great cloud of witnesses” that intercede on our behalf eternally.

We ought to be wise in terms of battling, recognising that humility and trust are better weapons to fight with than denial or boldness for conquest alone.

In considering the number and character of the witnesses, we are humbled by who they are and by what they’ve done. We’re talking the likes of Abraham and Joseph, Rahab and Gideon, and many, many more. Think of Sarah and Deborah, Elijah and Jeremiah. All these heroes and heroines of the faith lived by faith and were therefore commended as being right before God. It is the salvation of Jesus backdated and back paid.

Those who have gone before us knew the trials of life and they empathise with us!

These heroes of the faith, exemplars in every meaning of the word, are yet for us, individually, such is the nature and matter of heaven.

We ought well say, if God is for us, who verily could be against us?

With such a great cloud of witnesses cheering for us, we ought to throw off everything that hinders, that adds weight, that burdens, so that we can run our race with perseverance—a race marked out for us, as individuals.

Imagine the love of God that predestined a race for each of us, unique to the meeting of each of our spiritual needs!

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash