Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

There are situations in life where it is easy to question what the point of it is.  It is easier to justify a difficult situation or experience when there is reason or something good that comes from it.  In most good books, movies and stories there is a difficult thing or plotline that makes it all worth it in the end.  The movie wouldn’t be as good without the challenge and lessons learned through the struggles.  But the struggles come and go and the end of the book or story is never the real end.  It may end with a “happily ever after,” but it should probably end as “happily ever after for now,” as life difficulties continue and the joys of the story fade.  I’ve been thinking on this lately as I contemplate life and look back over the last year or forward to the upcoming year.  There are always good things and hard things in life, but it does make me wonder sometimes, what comes from it?  What’s the point of this time period?  What remains that is valuable as everything is sifted through?
 
I’ve thought of this often while pondering where to spend time and effort in life.  Do I focus on work, church, relationships and pouring into others or my own health?  We all have loves in life that are reflected in how we spend our time.  What lasts beyond us?  When the things we love in life such as work, church, relationships and health fail us, what remains?

This last year saw the 500^th anniversary of the reformation for my church.  I was encouraged by a Latin motto from the Lutheran Reformation that states, “Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum” meaning “The Word of the Lord endures forever.” 
 

It is a good reminder on what actually remains.  The motto comes from 1 Peter 1:24-25 where it states:

  ²⁴ for

“All flesh is like grass
    and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
    and the flower falls,
²⁵ but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

This doesn’t seem like the most encouraging verse in that it tells us we are like grass and wither.  Most of us would rather hear that we are strong and will have a legacy but this verse calls out exactly what we all know but tend to avoid, that our time is finite and we as humans fail.  We don’t have long on this earth and the one thing I hear from older generations repeatedly is that it goes by quickly. 

It also says that this word is the good news.  Flesh withering doesn’t seem like the best inspirational poster material, but it is encouraging that it is not dependent on us and our flesh.  In spite of our flesh withering, the word of the Lord remains.  In spite of us. 

This verse from 1 Peter comes from a section on our calling wherein verse 13 states, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Thank God for his continual grace that remains even when our flesh withers and fails us. 

 

There are situations in life or experiences that can’t be explained.  There are situations where we never will see a good resolution or receive an answer to the constant “why” question.

1 Peter is actually quoting another section of scripture from Isaiah 40.  The Isaiah passage is written to a people in exile.  This wasn’t exactly the glory days of God’s people.  In Isaiah, though He brought them low, He was still their God and identified with them.

 

The later part of Isaiah 40 has served as a reminder to me lately that not only does God’s word stand forever, but God’s greatness continually exceeds my own expectations even when I can’t answer my “why” questions or see the lessons.  He still remains.

Isaiah 40:9-31

The Greatness of God

⁹ Go on up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;^[e]
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;^[f]
    lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Behold your God!”
¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young.

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
    and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
    and weighed the mountains in scales
    and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has measured^[g] the Spirit of the Lord,
    or what man shows him his counsel?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult,
    and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
    and taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
    and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
    behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
    nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him,
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God,
    or what likeness compare with him?
¹⁹ An idol! A craftsman casts it,
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
    and casts for it silver chains.
²⁰ He who is too impoverished for an offering
    chooses wood^[h] that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
    to set up an idol that will not move.

²¹ Do you not know? Do you not hear?
    Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
²³ who brings princes to nothing,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
    scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
    and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵ To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
    calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
    and because he is strong in power,
    not one is missing.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
    and my right is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

The Lies of #Blessed

I moved to Seattle ten months ago with the excitement of life changes and a new phase.  When I moved to Seattle it was with the knowledge that some things would be really good and some things would be hard.  I would have always preferred to be a country girl than city girl so city life still sometimes intimidates me.  I could never have anticipated what the last ten months brought.  I still get asked how Seattle is going and I have to stop to realize it has only been ten months.  Sometimes it feels like two years with many lifetimes in them.  God has blessed me while in Seattle in some of the best and some of the most painful ways possible.

It’s easy to think of “blessed” in the sense of #blessed with Instagram pictures of coffee art, friend nights, activities, scenic views or family.  The last ten months have included all of those for me and I love my Seattle life.  I get to live close to friends and my current church community.  My job is going really well and I get to visit the city daily and experience the Seattle life and culture.  I can walk to Pike place on lunch to hear the market sounds and see fish being thrown, or visit museums on free museum days, or go shopping.  I get to have my own hotdog vendor and sit in a cement park listening to local street musicians surrounded by people as they play chess and swarm food trucks.  I can sit on the edge of a fountain during lunch break and read in the sun. I live next to a coffee shop and on the same street as a neighborhood local market and multiple restaurants that I can meet up with friends at a moments notice.  There are people in my life that I cherish and I have formed lifelong relationships.  God has given me many blessings in this phase of life in Seattle.

In the past I’ve narrowed the definition of God’s blessings to be defined as “positive things” in my life.  I’ve been realizing there are more to blessings than just the “good blessings.” Blessing can be defined as a special favor, mercy or benefit. 

My Seattle life has also been one of the most emotionally, mentally and spiritually challenging times in my life and has felt like years.  As hard as it has been I’m beginning to see glimpses of how God has been using these times to change and soften my heart.  The hardships I have been through may actually be a special favor, mercy or benefit from God.  He has protected me from myself and my own plans in so many ways while gently guiding me and redirecting me in His plans. 

There were times this last year where it was hard to see God. I see pain every day.  There are a lot of mental health issues in Seattle and along with all the vibrant life in the city comes darkness.  My bus route has people who talk to themselves while genuinely thinking they are talking to others.  I have seen groups of people fight and threaten to “cut each other” or throw hot soup on one another (don’t tell my mom!).  There are women at my bus stop who compare the conditions of the shelters they currently stay in and vent their frustrations on how they get kicked out when they don’t follow the shelter’s rules and take drugs in.  There are people who have it all (job, family, things) yet still struggle with significance, security and purpose in life.  There is so much pain and darkness around me that I can feel helpless to actually fix anything. 

On top of that there were personal struggles with where God had me in life and recognizing when to move on from some friendships.  There were times I felt emotionally and spiritually insufficient and undone and times where I was left wondering, “What are you doing or why would you even allow Satan to do this, God?”  Questions I know better than.  It can be difficult for me to not overanalyze and stress over how I can fix something or try to figure out what I should be getting out of it.  Even as God has physically taken care of me I’ve had to rely more emotionally and mentally on Him the last year than ever before. 

It’s not all as glamorous as my Instagram account would portray. The "#blessed" I use sometimes edits out the hardest places and what God has actually been doing in my life.

In this time of life, one of the many passages God reminded me of was Joel 2.  My life is not quite as desperate as the context of Joel 2 with armies of locust destroying everything.  But emotionally it sometimes felt like it.  I was comforted by how many times I can rely on the phrase, “But God,” or “Yet even now.” It leaves a confidence that even in the darkest of places and times God is still able to change hearts, situations and people.

Joel 2:12-14

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
¹³     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?

“Yet….even now,” gives hope in dark places.  I can feel insufficient and emotionally drained but can rest in who God is and know that there is nothing for me to do but to give God my heart and allow him to use me.  It takes the emphasis off of me and instead puts it on God and his steadfast love. 

My current hardships may actually be a blessing from God in his mercies and protection from my own “what ifs.”  They have ultimately continued to point me to God and trusting in who He is while leaving behind a blessing.   In the midst of inner turmoil, He has reaffirmed and given me deeper understandings of Who He is, how He sees me and the peace that comes with the confidence in trusting.

Yes, God has blessed me with good things and moments in life that I know I will cherish. But God has also blessed me in the hard times I wouldn’t label as “#blessed.”