Righteousness, Residency Graduation, and Recommended Resources :)
At a dear friends house, my daughter was playing in the sprinkler as she innocently greeted a tiny ant crawling up her leg. We didn’t know that it was a fire ant… It got her a couple times on her ankle, and since she was pretty shaken up even after a several minutes (those things hurt!), we went inside. She sat nervously wrapped up in her towel and deep in thought on the couch. In her confusion over which ants are good and which ants hurt, she cried out for justice in her sweet five-year old way, “Why does it hurt?! I just want Jesus to come back!” I sighed and smiled at her child-like faith and just held her. Her response to pain was to long for the day when all would be right. When things feel wrong, we crave the righteousness that only Jesus can bring.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6
Some people have interpreted this beatitude about righteousness to mean justice, when God will right every wrong. Some people have interpreted the righteousness as personal righteousness, as in growing in purity and obedience to God’s perfect and right standard in His word. I think it’s probably both, and that pursuing personal dependence on Christ’s righteousness will lead us to do “right” and pursue justice.
Jesus acknowledged that as we live out the first steps of the beatitudes: becoming poor in spirit, mourning over the cost of sin, and humility, we will realize our lack of righteousness (both in our hearts and in our world) and it will lead us to “hunger and thirst” for the righteousness of God. When the pain of mourning fades and we have space for reflection, a hunger wells up in us. As we behold Him and His right-ness in His word, our self-righteousness and shallow perception of justice fades, and we long for the real thing. He carves in our hearts a hunger for God’s word, God’s will and a thirst for His Spirit. As our example, Jesus lived His life being filled by the food of “doing the will of Him who sent [Him]” (John 4:34). And to those who receive Him, He promises “living water… whoever drinks of the water [He] will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:14). As we seek and behold His righteous character through His word, we will be awed, led to repentance, and changed.
The ‘rightness’ he teaches us gives us a new vision. We begin to love what He loves and hate what He hates; we will see injustice as even more unjust and wrong, and we will long for what’s right. Jesus promises that as He changes our hearts, we will “be satisfied.” We’ll be satisfied here on earth as we experience His perfection and goodness, and we’ll be satisfied in heaven when all is right and just.
As my daughter pondered the theology of ant bites, she thought about Jesus’ vision for no more tears and pain and she knew that He was right. Jesus’s way is right. His will is for us to walk in His righteousness, pursue His righteousness, and long for His righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that if we believe and trust in the work of Jesus, we become His righteousness. He has given us a foretaste, and he has marked His children with a longing for this righteousness. As we hunger and thirst and pursue Him, He fills and satisfies us with who He is, just like one day He will forever. May the righteousness of the gospel compel us to trust Him as we know this: we crave the very thing He died to give us, so when we mourn and hunger, it’s a sign on His pursuit of us. We are blessed because in Christ, He has given us a longing for the righteousness He loves to give us in Himself, and He will satisfy us forever.
He did it! We did it! We are so proud of Philip for finishing residency this month. His graduation was last night and it was a sweet time for the whole family. Everyone told us these would be some of the hardest years of our lives, and those people didn’t realize how right they would turn out to be. It’s been a whirlwind, but we are deeply grateful for all the Grace in the midst of it.
Also, about a year ago this week, we were at our weakest as Philip had just received a diagnoses of cancer. We sent out urgent prayer requests to our friends far and near, including you! We can’t thank you enough for your prayers… Philip has had clear scans since his surgery last year, and we are so grateful.
Recommendations:
Spurgeon’s Sorrows, Realistic Hope for Those Who Suffer From Depression. by Zack Eswine.
I just finished this little book! I have struggled with depression off and on, and I know that it can be a challenge to find not-overwhelming, balanced resources about depression— so I’m eager to share this with you!
Charles Spurgeon was so refreshingly honest about his depression. He talked about the medical aspects, the Biblical aspects, and the ways they overlap. Zach Eswine has beautifully and concisely compiled many of Spurgeon’s works into a helpful, rich, easy-to-read, and mercifully short book. He offers perspective from Spurgeon and commentary on Spurgeon’s life and writings to help people understand depression, and to help people understand the depressed.
If you struggle with this or love someone who does, I highly recommend this to you!
We are moving in two weeks and I can hardly believe it! I’ve been leaning on liturgies to help me process things in prayer this past year, and I found one in Every Moment Holy, Vol. 1 on “Leavings”, I hope to pray it over the next few weeks…. And I would love to share it with you here.
Liturgy for Leavings
“Even in our goodbyes there is a blessing, for the sorrow of parting is a measure of the depth of the bond we have come to share in Christ.
Thank you, O God that we do not walk this road alone, but that this journey toward eternity and toward your heart has been, from the beginning, one that you ordained we should undertake in the glad and good company of our fellow pilgrims.
O Lord, make us ever mindful of one another unto the end that we would labor in the days to come as those who would tend and encourage the stories of those around us by prayer and friendship and thoughtfulness and conversation, affirming and sharpening and amplifying one another’s good works, unto the end that your body would be built up, and that your kingdom would be more fully realized in this world.
Thank you, O God, for the mercy and the beauty incarnated in the words and acts of these your people, extended one toward another. It is no accident that we were born in the same epoch, and that our stories have twined in this time and this place.
Let us therefore go forth and steward one another’s stories. Let us journey from here together, as vessels of that mercy and as stewards of that wild and wondrous beauty that flows from the heart and mind of our Creator.
Grant, O Lord, that we might take our leave of one another now, feeling a right joy for the blessings of the hours we have shared, even as we feel a bright and hopeful sorrow at their close.
Friends and saints and fellow pilgrims, we part now in the confidence that in our diverging paths we walk the same road, fanning the same flame, and that in time we will meet again in a fellowship forever unbroken.
By your Spirit, O Christ, make us faithful in the meanwhile, as we go out to labor in the diverse fields to which you have assigned us, laboring unto that better meeting, and unto that new-made world that is yet promised and that has already begun.
O Spirit of God, be as present in our parting as you were in our gathering. Be present in our journeys. Be present in our days to come. Be present in our works and in our words and in our hearts. Be present in the bonds of our community, Lord Christ. Be ever at work among us and through us.
Amen”
Nothing without Him,
Angela Lee