A New Heaven and New Earth
We spend so much of life trying to fit in,
ㅤ but feeling trapped in darkness.
We pass our days seeing,
ㅤ experiencing,
Conflict.
Wondering…
ㅤ Why there is conflict.
ㅤ Why there are two sides.
ㅤ Who’s on which side.
But…
In our dysfunction,
ㅤ we cannot see a common thread.
We cannot interpret the isolated events.
We cannot recognize the story they belong to.
We cannot determine our place in the story.
So…
We assemble our own interpretation.
We compose our own story.
We attempt to ground ourselves in this story,
ㅤ but we find it disjointed.
Disconnected.
Pointless.
Meaningless.
For…
We lack context.
We lack perspective.
We did not see the beginning.
We have no vision for the end.
We are left directionless.
When the vision is presented to us…
When we learn the theme of the story…
We rebel.
We continue to choose our own path.
Our own disjointed story.
But instead of living in glory,
ㅤ we find ourselves,
ㅤ our world,
Cursed.
In our wretchedness,
ㅤ we turn toward Hope.
Toward Life.
Toward Good.
Toward the Source of all things.
We attempt to immerse ourselves in His story.
And in response we find ourselves walking on dry ground.
Able to move forward.
Able to live.
To experience joy.
Yet…
We leave that path.
We abandon the dry ground,
ㅤ returning to the muck.
The muck with which we are so familiar.
In which we are so comfortable.
We turn away from the face of God.
We step out of his hands of love.
We evict ourselves from his presence.
We remain unable to walk his path.
So…
He returns for us once again.
He joins us in a new way.
He bridges the gap,
ㅤ bringing us back to him.
And he presents,
ㅤ he offers,
Opportunity.
Opportunity to be closer to him.
To walk with him.
Not by our strength,
ㅤ but by his.
Not through our limited ability,
ㅤ but through his limitless power.
From nothing,
ㅤ he assembles beauty,
And brings us into it with him.
He rescues from the chaos in which we are drowning,
ㅤ planting us on firm soil…
Soil permeated by his Being.
Soil in which we can grow richly in him.
And everything we had been trying to avoid…
Had attempted to escape on our own…
He delivers us from.
He brings us into to our purposed existence.
Not one of pain and suffering,
ㅤ of disconnection and abandonment,
But one of connection.
Of relationship.
He brings us into a new story.
A story of health and healing.
A story of joy and purpose.
A story of connection.
His story.
Psalming as Performance Art — written in real time, as I sat in church listening to a sermon preached by Pastor Austin on 8/19/18: “A New Heaven and a New Earth”
