Bill Dogterom

There is a growing awareness for those who seek to follow Jesus that He might be leading in ways and to places different than we signed up for. We have to learn to sit gently to our own plans, our own dreams of what life is and should be. Jesus’ suggestion that we count the cost before choosing to follow Him comes to surface. What it will actually cost us to follow Him is seen immediately to be impossible to calculate or know.

It is then that His wisdom and strategy bubbles to the surface. He has called us to “take up our cross”. That can only mean one thing. He is calling us to die – to give up, from the beginning the right to determine our goals and destiny and give it over to Him. That is the cost we need to calculate. He may not, in every case, call us to do what we say we are willing to do. He may very well let us set our own goals and determine our own destiny. And that is all well and good. But He may also remind us that we are His – we have given over the rights of self-determination to Him. He gets to choose our life for us. And we get to say, “Thank You.”

Most often it shows up in the unexpected things that we did not plan for – the life that happens while we were expecting something else. A sudden catastrophic illness – the death of a loved one – an unexpected promotion to a position of greater responsibility – a chance conversation with a new friend that becomes transformational. When we give Him our life, He takes us seriously. And sets about the work of making us like Christ. For most of us, that is a pretty full days work!

How do we respond when things go differently than we had planned? First, we remember that we have given Him the right to do whatever He wants with us. He will not take it unless we give it – but having given it, He takes us seriously. Second, we remember that He is very good at taking what we give Him and bringing new life in new ways out of it. So, third, we give thanks, with joy. It takes some training – but we learn to whistle while He works. To learn to worship in response to the life we are given. To learn that grace happens.

A graced life does not always go the way we intend. But it will always be acceptable, satisfactory, and bring us to the real desire of our hearts.

Coming to the
hard edge
a wall marking
end

Finding the
wall is
moving out
at a pace
that is
breathtaking

Flying as
fast as we
can we still
can not
keep up
with height
on the rise

Down
down
down
as far below
as can be
imagined
touching down

Finding down
is sinking away
so fast that
we can not
fall fast
enough to
keep down

Pursuing east
‘til it
becomes
west
North
‘til it
becomes
south

And still . . .
still . . .
still . . .
more!

David celebrates the provision of the Lord when he writes that, “the steps of a righteous person are ordered of the Lord.” To be righteous simply means to be in covenant with the Lord – to have decided to order life in line with Him, to follow His ways and, when you get off track, to realign, centered on Him. David has discovered the wonderful reality that God is involved in the daily-ness of our lives – that He is working in real time to accomplish His purposes in us. Earlier in that same psalm (37) we learn the core elements of this kind of life – trust in the Lord, be faithful, commit your way to the Lord, do good. The outcome? He will give you the desires that are built into your heart. You will be well pleased with the life you end up living.

This is reflected in Romans 12:2. There, after Paul has encouraged Christ followers to respond to God’s mercy by wholeheartedly giving their whole selves to Him, he goes on to suggest that the life they end up with in doing this will be proven to be exactly what they wanted all along – it will be perfectly suited to them, very good in every way, and completely satisfactory to them. You can hear the echo of Jesus’ reminder that those who cling to their lives will lose them – but those who release their lives to Him will discover that, after all, they are the only ones who have a life! They will have lost nothing by giving themselves to Christ, but will have gained exactly what they wanted all along – their own lives!

Perhaps the classic text celebrating this providential reality is Proverbs 3. Again the key is living in line with the covenantal realities of kindness and integrity. Following hard on that is the encouragement to trust in the Lord, to live counter-intuitively if necessary, to keep Him central in the way that you live. The person who lives that way will, over time, discover that the Lord has had something to do with the course and outcome of his life. And, that it has worked out rather well!

This does not suggest a life of blissful ease. Sometimes the steps of the righteous lead through the valley of the shadow of death. Some mornings you will wake up to breakfast surrounded by the enemies of your soul. Then it is important to remember that He knows what kind of life is best for you – and He is at work to give it to you.

So, the first response to the gift of your life in Christ – regardless of the specifics of the moment – is to say, “Thank you.” It is a central component to the receiving of your life.

I have recently noticed the number of times the word “endure” appears in various forms and expressions in the New Testament. There is a whole lot of value given to sticking around through the tough stuff. In almost every one of Paul’s letters, the necessity of perseverance, of hanging in there, of not giving up, is a core value. In fact, James suggests that, with the proper attitude, we can take advantage of the winds that will inevitably blow against us to build up our endurance. Over and over again John records the risen, reigning Lord encouraging the people in the local churches to whom he writes to endure to the end. Endurance is rewarded.

For the early church, endurance was the key to their survival. They had to keep pressing on, heading into the hard realities of life. Often persecution would come on the heals of other, more natural disasters – famine, drought, war, civil unrest – as well as the normal things that happen to everyone – loneliness, fear, family breakdown, sickness, death. Before Christ, they enjoyed status and standing in the society, had the protection of the state, sat to dinner with their family in peace. Now, and often because of their embrace of Christ, they have lost their place in the society, they are open targets for criminal opportunists, family members have turned against them. The temptation to abandon their new faith in Jesus must have been almost overwhelming at times. They have to simply tie a faith knot in the bottom of the rope and hang on – get through it – not give up – not quit. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is stick around.

Today the pressures for most of us are not as extreme, but the need for endurance is every bit as crucial. You can’t parent without the simple determination to just not quit – to hang in there with your confused teen whether or not she comes out the other end. You can’t hope to celebrate your fiftieth wedding anniversary without making the decision to not give up at various points along the way. Every job comes with its standard number of bad days, bad people, and bad situations – including the job you are tempted to switch to! Every church goes through seasons of difficulty and discouragement. Every person who is seeking to grow to maturity in Christ will encounter tough times along the way.

The key is to have an attitude that rides the contrary wind higher. But even without that kind of attitude, the secret to getting to the end is not quitting in the middle.