An Encouraging Thought
There is a very real tension between hope and lament in scripture. We read of hope in the Jewish Scriptures of a savior who was to come, someone who would set everything right. We also read of our responsibilities in the meantime, to act with justice and righteousness. The theme continues after Jesus’s Resurrection – we see a hope that Christ will return, and an acknowledgement of the difficulties we face in the meantime.
Hope and Lament, Failure and Responsibility, Sin and Righteousness – these seemingly-contradictory ideas find a home in the Bible. It shapes what we believe.
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me…Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.”
The psalmist knew that to be searched and known by God was also a paradox. We are glad to know that God knows us and sees us…but we are also somewhat afraid of what God may think when he looks our way. So the psalmist asks God to “See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
God sees our inmost selves better than we do. He sees if there is any wicked way in us, and so it is right to ask to be led toward what is good – the everlasting way.
Our culture has done a lot of work to make everything contextual. To make everything situational, or to make any solid statement a “but what about…” moment. And yet the psalmist asks God to be led in an everlasting way. One that isn’t based on context, this minute, or our own perspective…but a way that lasts.
I crave that. My own judgement is flawed. I have biases. If I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what was right, that would be a relief. Those moments are rarer than we want them to be, so I join in the psalmist in asking God to look into my heart. Tell me if there is any wickedness there, and to show me an everlasting way.
I love the Lord of the Rings. I try to avoid using it as a sermon illustration, because if I allow myself to start I may never stop. This one spoke too strongly for me to leave it out. Bilbo had found a magic ring on an adventure some 50 years earlier, and it turns out that it was a ring that could only be used for evil. So it fell to his heir, Frodo, to destroy the ring. Partway through a dangerous journey to destroy it, Frodo talks with his wise friend Gandalf. He admits that he wishes that he hadn’t been born to such dangerous times, and that he worries he’s not up to the task ahead.
That’s when Gandalf shares a bit of hope:
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”
Between COVID, our country’s moment of reckoning with systemic racism, and a cultural shift that’s been in process for decades, it would be easy to assume that only evil forces are at work in the world. We might feel like Frodo did, and wish we’d been born some other time, with some other job, and to be able to live a quiet life.
Gandalf’s wise answer to Frodo applies to us just as well. There are other forces at work in the world besides those of evil. We may be discouraged, depressed, and tired, but God is still at work in the world, and the story ends with redemption. It is up to us to simply repent when repentance is needed, to welcome the sight of God, and to do what God asks of us.
God is at work in the world, and that is an encouraging thought.
This article was originally posted on kevineccles.com.
AUTHOR - KEVIN ECCLES
I’m the father to two girls, husband to one wife, holder of a degree in Chemistry and Theology both, and a huge introvert. I love sharing my passions with others, talking about life and what makes us each tick, teaching, or playing a round of disc golf.
