Broken & Beloved

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
- Hebrews 12:1-3

On this, Tim Keller writes, “What was His joy? His joy was you. His joy was me.” 

As Sammy Rhodes says, "The Beloved was broken so that everyone who feels broken might become the beloved of God through Him." That is the joy of Jesus. His joy was entering into our broken world, our broken situations, our broken lives, and taking that brokenness upon himself that we might become whole and be reconciled to our Creator. 

The reality is that our brokenness is very real, and in and of ourselves there’s sweet nothing we can do about it. There is an honest relief in admitting that fact. 

But there is a quiet, constant hope that yet whispers through the darkness, through the brokenness, to our despair. The only One who can do something about it is very near and He longs to break in to our broken places to bring breakthrough. 

He is both Broken and Beloved. He is the one who says, “This is My body broken for you.” And He is the Beloved Son of God, with whom the Father is well pleased. His brokenness is our healing. His belovedness is our hope.

Prodigal James

If I just showed up at your party

Would you have me? Would you want me?

Would you tell me to go straight to hell

Or lead me to the garden?

~ Taylor Swift, Betty

Tonight I was thinking about these lyrics, because we, like James in this song, have done stupid things and require forgiveness and quite frankly deserve to be told to go straight to hell. But it made me specifically think of the prodigal son in Luke 15, and the difference between James's Betty and our God that we need forgiveness from is that God doesn't wait for us to show up at His party; instead even while we are a long way off, He runs out to us to embrace us, forgive us and bring us home. 

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

And then God throws a cracker party, where the answers are yes: Yes, He would have me; Yes, He would want me. He leads us into His garden of promises where we are absolutely wanted and loved and held forever! 

So as I listen to Betty, I find myself grateful once again that Jesus shows up so that we can party with Him. 

Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes

 You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes

~ Taylor Swift, Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince

What games am I playing? What prizes am I spending my life trying to win? These are the questions that always pop into my mind when I hear this song. 

I want to be playing for a prize that really matters, for a prize that lasts, to look back at the end and know I have achieved something of meaning. I certainly don't want to pour out my life in the pursuit of something that doesn't even matter. I don't want to play stupid games to win stupid prizes. 

It also makes me think of the times of playing Candy Crush when I start a level without taking in what the goal is, and then I get caught up clearing out the chocolate or collecting the pieces that seem the most obvious, only to get to the end of my moves and realise I completely missed the mark in what I needed to do. 

I don't want that to be true of my life. When my moves are up at the end of my days, I don't want to have just done my own thing, thinking I know best, and completely miss the true goal of my life. So I need to pause often and remember what the goal and the prize set before me is: 

Philippians 3:12-14 "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

The upward call of God in Christ Jesus is the goal I am striving for, the game I am called to play; and the crown of life, which God has promised to me, is the prize I am living for. 

Everlasting

You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.

~ Taylor Swift, The 1

T Sweezy was onto something with these lyrics. Because no matter how epic the love story, there will always eventually come a point where either death or distance or disagreement do them part. 

Except (thank the Lord!) God's love is different. Death, distance, disagreement, demons, depth, despair can't touch it. 

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."

The good news of the Gospel is that there is no expiry date on God's love for us. There is no end to His love, because God is love and from everlasting to everlasting He is. God's love for us is everlasting and His faithfulness continues always. 

So, Taylor, my humble request to update that line: 

The Greatest Love of all time is everlasting and you can know it right now. 

 

Out Of The Woods

 

The above three lines are from the ending of Taylor Swift's Out of the Woods music video. The video is a journey of Taylor fighting and struggling in mountains, snow, oceans, and of course the woods; something of a picture of the struggles of a relationship in a rocky place. At the end of the video, she emerges onto a peaceful beach looking ragged and broken by her experiences and finds there an untouched, unblemished version of herself, and the words appear:

She lost him.
But she found herself.
And somehow that was everything.

She lost him. Their relationship never made it out of the woods. They failed. 

But she found herself. Taylor speaks to the idea of “expressive individualism", that the purpose of life is to find and express your individuality and that you “find yourself” by fighting through and emerging triumphant from all the constraints placed upon you by others.

And somehow that was everything. Why does this song/concept so resonate with us? Because, deep down, we all just want to be fully known and totally loved. And we are sold the shortcut of “knowing yourself” and “loving yourself” so we no longer have to be dependent on anyone else for our happiness.

While I agree with the longing and desire this conveys, I'd like to challenge Taylor's solution here to this problem. 

Yes, even in the Christian life there is an overarching story of discovery that makes sense of all our trials. But the difference is that it's radically God-focused, not self-focused. It is the story of how Jesus finds and rescues unworthy sinners; it's not our own attempts to find ourselves. It’s all about how God expresses Himself in amazing grace to the world through the death and resurrection of His Son, not how we express the worth we think we have in ourselves.

Jesus told us (in Matt 10:39) that "the one who finds their life will lose it, but the one who loses their life – for His sake – will find it." Sounds like it's not self-discovery, but Jesus-discovery that is key. 

The Gospel that calls us out of the woods of sin and brokenness and into the clear of Jesus' grace and redemption beautifully rewrites those lines from the music video:

She lost herself. 

But she found Him. 

And somehow that was everything.

The Shiniest Wheels

I had the shiniest wheels, now they're rusting

~ Taylor Swift, This Is Me Trying

How much time do we waste trying to make all our wheels the shiniest, only for the rust to inevitably come. We invest so much time and energy and elbow grease in shining up the things that, in the greater scheme of things, matter very little. 

Status, wealth, comfort, fame, popularity, instagram likes, promotions, fancy cars, pretty houses, perfect wardrobes. These might shine for a little while, but the rust will always eventually inescapably destroy. 

Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

So let us pour our lives, instead, into the treasures that will last; the treasures that no rust can touch. Advancing God's kingdom, loving people, building relationships, giving generously, making disciples. 

These are the wheels that will forever be shiny. 

Out The Doubt

The Internet is a fascinating place. So many loud voices with strong opinions screaming their contradicting views—it can be a lot. Some voices are straight up in your face: Twitter, blogs, YouTube channels. Others are more subliminal than that: news articles, Instagram captions, lyrics and Netflix shows. 

But all (intentionally or not) have a message, a "truth" that they are trying to sell. And it feels like more and more, these are messages that are straying further and further from the ultimate Truth of God. 

So what do we do with that? We want to love all people, but can we really do that while still holding to the real Truth that goes against so much of our current culture? When the world is saying "everything is true if you want it to be", how do we stand strong calling out the lies of the enemy? When the people ask where our God is in the midst of all the tragedies, pandemics, shootings, politics, hatred, racism, poverty, how do we hold on and believe that God is good, that He is enough to satisfy?

Cry to God

In January 2021, a word that sums up so much of our current state is turmoil: a state of great disturbance, confusion, or uncertainty; great anxiety. All the way back in time, David could say to us, "I feel you, bro."

In Psalm 43, David lays out his fear, distress, and anxiety:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?”

It is often a lonely and personal struggle when the mind goes to war—and that is why it is so dangerous. It has been said before that to be passive in thought is the easiest way to drown. Because doubt is a quiet whisperer and a sneaky silencer, it cannot be fought if it is not addressed.

David follows up his question with the simple resolution:

“Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

When we reach out to God, crying “I don’t understand, I need help, my faith is failing!” doubt loses its strategy of loneliness. When doubt reaches out, seeking mercy and grace, it ceases to be doubt. Instead, it becomes faith.

Seek the Truth

David faced many a struggle in his time, and his reaction to turmoil was consistently the same—to pour out his doubts and fears, and then lift his eyes and cry out for mercy from God and to find strength in His character. So many of David's psalms that started with turmoil and doubt ended with praise and proclamation of God's Truth. 

But to proclaim the Truth to ourselves, we need to know the Truth, we need to be actively absorbing it (Psalm 119:11 "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."). This is why we are encouraged to seek after truth and to search the Bible and compare it to what we are hearing (Acts 17:11 "examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true"). 

Not as the world

The world is full of thoughts, ideas and agendas, but it is definitely not full of wisdom. Many ideas of the world are designed to tug on our heartstrings, to make us feel good, to capture our attention (and our bank accounts), to promise our pleasure and comfort. 

But Jesus doesn't ever try and fit that mould. John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

I think a key aspect of working through our doubts is remembering that God's Truth doesn't make sense when viewed through the lenses of our current culture. God's Truth is counter-culture, or actually we should say, culture is counter God's Truth. 

Jesus said in His prayer in John 17, "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world." Jesus knew that following Him meant we would never fit in, that His perfect design could never fit the mould of the world. 

Trying to make Truth fit into our culture is a burden that we need to lay down. And as we become more comfortable with the concept of "not of the world", "not as the world", I think it will become increasingly easier to stand strong in God's Truth. Not that we won't ever doubt, but that we will be quicker to take that doubt to our God and ask for His Truth to prevail.