Calm Down!

 November 15, 2020

Recently, I was in an online conversation with a high school friend whose political proclivities are much different than mine, but with whom I can have a civil conversation—somewhat rare these days. A friend of hers chimed in, and the essence of their conversations dealt with the inner unrest they have felt because of president Trump. Referencing the rioting in DC and COVID’s continual spread, the friend’s last words were, “so much for calming down. Wish I could harness how you do it!” 

I responded with, “I know how, but most people aren’t willing to actually do the work to calm down.” It starts with where our lives are centered. In today’s reading from Our Daily Light devotional, the centering of our lives is described:

“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

Organizing life around anything that can be taken away is a sure recipe for anxiety. Savings, family, political alliances, health...all these can evaporate overnight. If my well-being is dependent on any of these (and everything else in this earthly life), sooner or later, my well-being won’t be very well. it is one thing to have faith in the sunshine; quite another to have it in the storm. 

The devotional continues:

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.—God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”—Indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

This is where most people walk away. The faith we profess must be held with the desperation of a drowning man to a life ring. I know plenty of people who gave the appearance of faithfulness when things were going their way, but when life crashed, they did, too. Their grip on Christ was tenuous, and though Christ promises to never abandon us, we will not experience the security and assurance of those promises if we fail to cling to them as Mary clung to the hem of Jesus’ garment in the garden (John 20). Christ promises to be with us, but when our gaze is fixed on what we have lost or stand to lose, it is not fixed on him, who alone is our Rock and Fortress. Such “holding fast” is not easy, and is not for the faint-hearted. Only when we do so can we accomplish the next part of the devotional text:

“Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

We Americans have been spared the kind of suffering common in many parts of the world and throughout much of human history. Sure, we know the suffering of illness, betrayal, and loss, but we haven’t experienced persecution. The time may be drawing near, and if so, it will be a refiner’s fire, purifying and separating the gold from the dross. I am not an alarmist, and certainly don’t have a hotline to God’s mind on these things, but we all have the same Scriptures, which prepare us for challenges by urging us to trust in Christ; first, for the forgiveness of our sins, and then for strength and help for the day.

Years ago when visiting Beijing, I listened to an aged Chinese pastor who had endured much persecution during Mao’s purges. He spoke of many things, but the one thing that I remember from this saint who himself had endured so much, was a simple statement: “Persecution is not good for those who love Jesus a little. It is good for those who love Jesus a lot.” 

Tonight, I am thankful for this devotional that Linda and I have used for years. Today it gave the answer to that woman’s plea—“Wish I could harness how you do it!” 

1 COR. 1: 9. HEB. 10: 23. 2 COR. 6: 16. 1 JOHN 1: 3. 1 PET. 4: 13. EPH. 3: 17—19.— Daily Light on the Daily Path (From the Holy Bible, English Standard Version): The Classic Devotional Book For Every Morning and Evening in the Very Words of Scripture by Jonathan Bagster