Newness

Quote for the day: "If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself". Oswald Chambers

Verse for the day: "Look, I am making everything new" Revelation 21:7

Thought for the day: 

Look... we rarely do that. We see, but we don't look. Look means behold, watch attentively, pay attention, wait to see.

Waiting is now a rare and vanishing art. In this day of nanosecond technology, we want our answers and our results yesterday. We used to have dial up internet here in Manali. Now broadband has been a luxury for years. Even so, when it is slow, we feel our frustration rising. God requires us to still our souls and be able to wait in quietness.

It is he who is making things new. We struggle and strain at the oars, pushing and shoving at  the incessant waves, inheriting the wind. Far easier for us to pull with the tide of his purpose. But for that we have to first realise and know the flow of that tide.

Newness is from his perspective, one that we will never quite be able to fathom or imagine. Far beyond our conception or imagination are his thoughts. But as the sun rises over the mountains, and one only sees the brilliance fill the sky, it suddenly breaks out after creating a million myriad shadows.

In the shadows is the promise of newness.

A great work

"I am doing a great work."

Nehemiah kept repeating this phrase. He had to face social injustice, arrange the finances, prepare a team, start the building, establish a twenty four hour watch for enemies, face opposition, ridicule, insinuations of being rebellious, death threats and of false testimony raised against him. At each turn, this was the phrase he constantly repeated… “I am doing a great work”.  He was constantly aware of this lodestar and calling despite every adverse circumstance he faced. This helped him stay focussed and unwavering to his task. 

Can we echo this phrase? Nehemiah was building a wall. But in his mind, he was aware of the implications of placing brick on brick and laying mortar.

Our works may be just that now, brick on brick, and mortar. But can we look on it as a great work? Are we aware of the implications of this for the future of our workspots in the warp and woof of time? 

What is our great work?

Finishing

Holding firmly the reality that we had at the start.

The start of many a venture is filled with idealism. Brave ideals. Towering concepts. Eternal values. These fuel many a start up venture and enthuse runners at the starting gun. Companies, institutions and families explode from the starting block with great commitment and fervor. Years down the line we see stragglers, victims fallen by the wayside, panting participants valiantly struggling just to keep going and many entirely missing from the track, victims of exhaustion, disappointment and depression.

One wonders if an ideal is hardy enough for the long haul.

Hebrews 3: 14 asks us to hold on not to an ideal, but a reality that we had at the start.

How did we start our race? Was it based on an ideal, a concept, or a reality? This will determine the outcome at the finish line.

Our start often determines our finish, but for that we need to hold on to the reason for our starting at all. Its motivation has to be a flesh and blood reality that enlivens our days and enthuses our miles over mountain passages. A concept may not be good enough.