To the unsung hero’s called fathers and dads, even those who are not the biological parent, I salute you this day. You are blessed. Stay the course, refuse to succumb to the storms of hatred toward men—the male species—in general. Stand united knowing that you are not alone—even though you may feel that way. To you, I wish a wonderful Happy Father’s Day.
Last week I began a thought wrapped around a verse of scripture in the Old Testament book of Psalms; “this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” God made the day a long time ago during the time the Bible calls the beginning. This part of the Psalms focuses on what God does—create.
The second part of the Psalm centers on what the Christ-follower does—chooses. “I will rejoice,” reflects the will of the Christ-follower. No matter what the day brings, what path lies before him or her, rejoicing is the order of the day. By definition, rejoice means to show joy or great delight. This means that God created this day, therefore I will show joy or great delight in it. What a powerful statement.
To show joy or great delight is easy when everything is going well, but what about the day (or days) when everything is going wrong—even horribly wrong? This is where a close personal relationship with the godhead is so important. This is where a massive separation between religion and relationship is clearly seen.
Religion is based on a series of rules, regulations, and conditions. As long as each is followed, things are good. However, when the path turns pot-holed, muddy, and uphill, it becomes more difficult to follow the rules, regulations, and conditions. If the patch on the path is short-lived, and things return to normal, the bump in the road—as it were—is soon forgotten.
But what do you do if the path is long and winding with no end in sight? The religious person will either turn around and leave the path, finding another, continue along the path becoming embittered at God for taking them down the path, or will give in the tactics of the adversary, the devil, and leave anything godly behind. This is the harsh reality of religious life.
The Christ-follower building a close personal relationship with the godhead traveling down the same difficult path may cry out in pain, agony, or disappointment, but will ultimately surrender to God’s plan; because he or she chose to “rejoice and be glad in it.” This is not decided easily, in fact, it is often very costly.
There is a story in the New Testament book of John, where the words of Jesus cause many of his followers to abandon him. He turns to the twelve disciples, asking if they too will leave? One of them replies, “Where would we go? You only have the words of life.” In other words, they chose to rejoice in the day—a very bad at that.
I have made mention of this on several occasions, but I truly believe that humanity has entered into a time of testing, perhaps the end of time as it is known. I do not say this to scare anyone, but rather to prepare anyone listening to the fact that a close personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is a mandate for those willing to build a relationship with God. The Bible records Jesus saying to many, “follow me.” Those willing to build such a relationship dropped what they were doing—the 12 disciples—while the others began making excuses.
This did not mean that the ones willing to follow had it easy, while the ones who walked away had it difficult. In fact, the opposite was true; the path became more difficult for the followers. Why then would anyone choose to follow? The answer is simple—yet takes a measure of faith to operate in—“You only have the words of life.”
Think of it like this. A play is a lot like life, it has many components that must work together in order for the performance to take place. The writer may write, but without actors, directors set designers, costume designers, set builders, costume makers, stagehands, a venue for the production, promotion of the production, selling of tickets, purchasing of tickets, etc, etc, etc. the performance will not go on.
Both the writer and director know the type of personel he or she is looking for to fill a particular role. Although many may audition, only those who chose to stay have any chance of being in the performance. The director must offer you a part; then you must choose to accept the part. The part offered may be different from the part you wanted; you must choose to accept it. Once accepted, very difficult work begins. Each actor must be transformed into the character he or she has accepted to be. The set must be built, costumes made, and production components must be put in place.
If you have ever acted, you understand what I am talking about. You have a cast, as well as crew—everyone has his or her particular part to play—that must now choose to work together in order for the performance to have a chance of opening. Some days are more difficult than others, while sometimes circumstances require unexpected changes to be made—which means choosing to adapt to the changes.
Anticipation grows as opening day nears. The pain, suffering, and rejections begin to fade into the background as the energy and effort show the promise of a successful performance. In other words, there is a day approaching where you will say, it was worth it.
What if, this performance analogy is an accurate depiction of a Christ-followers life? What if, your life on planet earth is a preparation for the opening performance—in eternity?
What if, the choices made today determine whether you are a cast member, set crew, production crew, or simply a spectator?
It is a thought, something to think about. If true—and I believe it is—then the importance of our decisions in this life cannot be overstated. A close personal relationship with the godhead is a gate that takes you to a path that is a most unexpected journey.